Latest news with #MinimumEssentialStandardofLiving
The Irish Sun
15-07-2025
- General
- The Irish Sun
Social welfare €16 weekly rate boost & Child Benefit €6 & €15 hike calls in Budget 2026 key ‘tangible differences' alert
INCREASING child supports, living alone and disability payments in Budget 2026 will "give support where it is most needed" amid rising living costs, according to a leading Irish charity. The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul ( Advertisement 3 The poverty charity expects 250,000 calls this year Credit: Getty 3 SVP made 15 suggestions in its pre-Budget statement Credit: Getty Budget 2026 will see It comes as the volunteer organisation expects the amount of calls for help this year to approach 250,000. And they said that "financial adequacy and stability" must be at the heart of social protection measures "to prevent further hardship". Advertisement READ MORE IN MONEY The group's Delivering an Equal and Inclusive Budget submission includes 19 measures that focus on tackling child poverty, in-work poverty, childcare, housing, living alone, One of the key suggestions is to increase the core adult social protection rate by €16 per week, bringing it to €260. The "Without this increase that accounts for inflationary pressure since 2020, low-income households are falling further behind." Advertisement Most read in Money A second suggestion is that child support is increased by €6 for under 12s and €15 for over 12s. They explained that the evidence is based on Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) 2025 report, which claims that current rates fall behind the necessary amount to ensure income equality for children. New round of $1,702 'permanent' stimulus checks to automatically hit accounts in just days – see if yours is on the way SVDP said: " It shows that for children aged 12 and over, current payments meet just 64% of their essential needs, while for those in primary "Older children in particular face increased costs related to education, nutrition, and social inclusion, and these costs are not reflected in the current child supports structure." Advertisement A third call made by the charity is an increase of the living alone allowance, paid out to those who are living by themselves and receiving a social They explained that the increase would be a targeted measure to support households facing a disproportionately higher cost of living relative to multi-person households. WEEKLY DISABILITY PAYMENT SVDP also called on the government to introduce a weekly €55 They said: "This is in response to what SVP members witness firsthand from people living with a disability, such as the additional costs of transport, difficulties accessing employment, or the burden of extra heating needs." Advertisement Rose McGowan, SVP National President, said: 'For Budget 2026, we are appealing to the government to focus on a holistic approach to make real and tangible differences for the most vulnerable in our society.' 'The latest Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) figures are deeply concerning – consistent poverty has increased from 3.6% to 5%, with an even higher increase for children, jumping from 4.8% to 8.5% in just one year. 'CONSISTENT POVERTY' "That's over 45,000 more children now living in consistent poverty. These are not abstract statistics – they represent children growing up in cold bedrooms, going to school hungry, and missing out on the social and educational experiences that are fundamental to a healthy childhood.' 'We know from our experience on the frontline that the right policy choices do make a difference – we saw it with the introduction of free schoolbooks and hot school meals. Advertisement "Budget 2026 must continue that momentum, with targeted structural reforms to ensure adequate incomes and real pathways out of poverty.' SVP Head of Social Policy, Louise Bayliss said: 'The temporary, one-off cost-of-living payments from the government provided critical short-term relief in recent years. MAIN PROPOSALS Other key recommendations proposed by SVP for the forthcoming Budget: Increase and Index-Link the Income Disregard for One-Parent Family Payment (OPFP) and Jobseeker's Transitional Payment (JST) Make childcare affordable by increasing the subsidy and threshold for the National Childcare Scheme (NCS). Ensure every child in emergency accommodation has access to a child support worker. Continue the roll out of free hot school meals to all children and ensure ongoing evaluation of the nutritional content. Increase the provision of social housing stock and affordable cost rental homes for vulnerable and low-income households. Introduce a homeless prevention budget amounting to 20% of all homeless expenditure. Provide capital funding to address the long-term accommodation needs for those in direct provision with status to remain. Allocate €10 million to establish local, publicly run Early Childhood, Education and Care (ECEC) services. Make our state education system truly free by removing costs and charges to families including mock exam and correction fees, electronic devices and school uniforms. Benchmark SUSI grants and reckonable income levels against the cost of living. Increase Fuel Allowance by €9.50 per week. Extend the Fuel Allowance to recipients of the working Family Payment. Pilot a community energy advice service. Increase funding to the Waiting List Initiative to clear the waiting list and backlog for the Assessment of Need process. Allocate sufficient funding to fully implement the National Therapy Service in mainstream education settings. "However, with these supports now withdrawn, low-income households are left exposed to high living costs and growing financial insecurity. "Poverty in a wealthy country like Ireland is a policy failure but our next Budget offers a vital opportunity to put financial certainty and dignity at the heart of Government decision-making. Advertisement 'Rising poverty and homelessness rates should not be happening in a wealthy country with a growing economy, Budget 2026 can and should make a difference to the people we support.' 3 Increasing child welfare and disability payments are among the calls made by the group Credit: Getty
RTÉ News
04-07-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
'It's just mad money' - Shoppers struggling with food price hikes
There have been more than 103,000 calls for help to St Vincent De Paul this year and almost half were requests for help with food. A further 14% were appeals for help with food as well as another issue. Food prices have increased by 24% in the last five years, according to the Central Statistics Office. "It's terrible," says one man shopping in Dublin. "My wife complains I'm spending all our money. I shop every day and every time I go to shop it's gone up. It's gone up." Other shoppers in the city say they have noticed prices rising, particularly with certain items. "Toilet roll, that's gone up. Butter's gone up. Everything," one young mother said. "Yeah, it's gone up now. Even with the vouchers. It's just mad money. "I think bread is gone up loads. Eggs is mad money as well and the baby food is expensive - not her formula - but more so just like the little packs and jars." "Bread's gone up," says another man. "Brown bread's gone up a lot - it's huge. They still have the usual carrots and special offers but you don't want to be eating carrots every day." CSO Statistician Anthony Dawson, who is responsible for the Consumer Price Index, said that overall the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages was up 4% in the last year. In the last five years, he said that food prices have increased by 24%. Mr Dawson added that certain items have increased notably in the past year. "Beef prices, they're up 20% compared to May 2024 ... and the price of milk is up 18% while butter is up 12% in that same time period. Something else we've seen is the price of chocolate is up 17% compared to this time last year." Mr Dawson says these are increases on top of already pretty substantial rises over the last five years. "Butter and milk they're both up 46%. Bread is up 26%, and we've seen potatoes increase by 17%." Coffee and tea prices are up 25% and 17% respectively, he added. Mr Dawson says that Ireland has already experienced record high inflation in 2022 and while it subsided in 2023, it was still high. "Again we're seeing that, come 2024/2025, still the prices continuing to increase." The total calls for help received by the St Vincent de Paul this year is 103,113. Of that number, 50,471 cited food (49%) while 14,655 (14%) cited food and another issue. The organisation tracks the cost of a basket of goods and services considered necessary to live at a socially acceptable minimum standard of living. Vincentian MESL (Minimum Essential Standard of Living) Research Centre Manager Robert Thornton said that it has noticed a change in how people shop since its previous research in 2020. "Five years ago, when we last talked to members of the public about this, they had agreed that you do most of your grocery shopping in one of the more discount retailers. "This time round, surprisingly, they actually came to agree that really all the supermarkets, with the range of special offers available, with some supermarkets offering vouchers or discounts with loyalty card schemes, that really they are much of a muchness in the end." As prices rise, Mr Thornton said some people are feeling the pinch more. "As costs have gone up by in and around 20% for food and approximately 19% overall, if we look at households reliant on social welfare, ultimately, we find that social welfare rates haven't really kept pace with the change in minimum living costs." He said the various one-off top-up supports, some of which were targeted, and some like the electricity credits which were provided to everyone, helped offset some of the spike iand things have improved compared to 2023 when living costs were at their highest. "But nevertheless ... we're really only now at approximately where we were in 2020 despite social welfare rates being in euro terms much higher now than they were then." Mr Thornton said the proportion of living costs now is no more significant than it was five years ago. Lone parent households and those with a second-level child or a teenager tend to be in deep income inadequacy, he said, where social welfare meets less than 90% of their minimum needs. "Our minimum basket is describing what people agree you should be able to have ... and they're going to have to do without at least some of that because their income just doesn't go far enough." In a statement, the Department of Enterprise highlights analysis by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) in June 2023 that found no evidence of excessive pricing in the grocery retail market. The department said it has continued to review grocery price inflation in Ireland and that it remains broadly in line with the European average. Minister of State Alan Dillon - who has responsibility for retail - has requested the CCPC provides an update to the 2023 analysis, the statement added.
Irish Daily Mirror
17-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Daily Mirror
Essential minimum living costs in Ireland increased by almost 20% since 2020
Essential minimum living costs have increased nationally by almost 20 per cent in the past five years, a new report has revealed. The Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) report was published on Tuesday by the Vincentian MESL Research Centre at the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP). It found that living costs in Ireland have increased by 1.8 per cent in the past year and 18.8 per cent since 2020. The report highlights that those on social welfare are not receiving enough to reach the minimum essential standard of living, which are services necessary to meet physical, psychological and social needs. And one-parent households are most at risk of financial inadequacy. As an example, the report noted that a one-parent household with a primary and second-level child only meets 82 per cent of the household's minimum needs when dependent on social welfare support. The cost of the needs of a child aged 12 and over remains the highest age group at €158 per week. Social welfare meets just 64 per cent of needs for this age group. The cost of the needs of a primary school age child is €98, while the needs of a preschool-age child costs €72 per week. Saint Vincent de Paul has also stressed that the national minimum wage - which is €13.50 an hour for workers over the age of 20 - "continues to be a concern". Since last year, the minimum outgoings for a single adult in minimum wage full-time employment has risen by 5.6 per cent. A worker in this scenario is making €131 less a week than they need to to meet minimum needs. The report has cited rising private rents in Dublin and an increase in home energy and food costs for this rise. In conclusion, the report highlighted that many household situations, particularly when reliant on social welfare, continue to be at risk of income inadequacy. It continued: "This is especially pronounced for single-adult households and families with older children. Although recent policy measures, such as the introduction of the New Baby Grant and the expansion of school meals and book schemes, have had a positive impact, they are not sufficient to close the gap for all household types."
RTÉ News
16-06-2025
- General
- RTÉ News
Minimum standard of living costs rise by almost 20% since 2020
Essential minimum living costs increased by 1.8% in the past year with a cumulative increase of 18.8% nationally since 2020. The figures are contained in the annual Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL) report published by the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. The research team found that households with older children (second-level age) were at a greater risk of deep income inadequacy when dependent on social welfare. The cost of children aged 12-years and over is the highest of any other age group according to research. At €158 per week in 2025, social welfare meets 64% of needs for this age-group. The cost of the needs of a primary school age child is €98, while the needs of a preschool-age child costs €72 per week. The report also found that the essential standard of living needs for a one parent household with a primary and second-level child cost €555 per week. When dependent on social welfare supports, income only met 82% of this household's minimum needs. The cost of a minimum basket of goods for an urban single adult in minimum wage full-time employment rose by 5.6% in 2025. The report said that while employment generally improves household income, the adequacy of the national minimum wage "continues to be a concern".
