Low Income Families Suffer Most.

The hard border and a fall out from Brexit may be too hard a fall for low income families.  

Social Justice Ireland is a non-profit organization that advocates for equality and justice for all members of society. They focus on policy reform, on issues related to poverty, inequality, social exclusion and sustainability. This year they are giving special priority to the issues surrounding Brexit and the impact it will have on the poorest in society.

The prospect of a hard-Brexit has been overshadowed by the threat of Covid-19 in recent months. However, the potential for sudden and significant changes in economic activity and living standards from January 1st 2021 remains a major concern to low income families. Last year saw increased employment and high rates of economic growth, despite this there are still 637,000 people living in poverty in Ireland, 193,600 are children under the age of 18.

Michelle Murphy, Research Policy Analyst at Social Justice Ireland, expressed concern over the failure by Government to increase social welfare rates in the Budget 2021 saying “for two years in a row now we haven’t seen an increase in welfare rates.” Ms. Murphy is also worried about the lack of discussion around Brexit and the impact it will have on low income families, adding “they do not feature in any of the Brexit discussions, nor do they feature in the government Brexit fund itself.” 

 An ESRI report, from March 2018, highlighted the dependence of the Irish consumers on imports from other states. In particular, it noted the concentration of UK imports on household expenditure in areas such as food. Tariffs on foods coming in from the United Kingdom and the failure by Government to increase core social welfare rates in Budget 2021 means that “low income families will be disproportionately impacted by the increase in the price of food, which is going to come after January.” Ms. Murphy added that “the poorest 30 percent of the population spend 20 percent of their disposable income on food every week, the rest on transport, accommodation and energy bills. If you see a rise in the cost of food it’s going be very difficult for this cohort to absorb that increase.” The ESRI found that consumer prices would rise by between 2% and 3.1% and this would raise the cost of living for the average Irish households by between €892 and €1,360 a year.

 Ms. Murphy said “despite four years of successive economic growth and high employment rates, well in advance of the impact of covid, we are nowhere near reaching the 2020 child poverty target or the national poverty target that was set back in 2010.” Social Justice Ireland welcomed the commitment to the living wage within the programme for Government, yet it still begged the question, “Why is child poverty not a political priority?”

Ms. Murphy was adamant that in order for the public to really help those who are vulnerable they needed to “make poverty a priority for themselves and put pressure on local elected representatives.” In the run up to Christmas, she urged people to shop local and donate to charities such as SVP.