SEVERAL BRANCHES of the Society of St Vincent de Paul are running out of money and will reach crisis point within months, an Oireachtas social affairs committee has been told.
The troubled branches are concentrated in disadvantaged urban areas, not only in Dublin but in other cities and towns such as Limerick, Cork, Galway, Dundalk and Drogheda.
The society's national vice-president, Prof John Monaghan, said the crisis in its finances was coming at a time when demand for its services was growing. The society had to spend €50 million this year to help people in need and it expected to have a demand for close to €60 million in 2009.
"In the latter part of 2007 there was a significant change in the number of people coming to us for help. When we reached 2008 calls for assistance were up by 40 per cent some months and in the months leading up to children going back to school, calls were up about 70 per cent," he said.
Recent figures from the Central Statistics Office had shown a decrease in the levels of consistent poverty, but Mr Monaghan said this trend would be reversed next year.
"They were figures from the good years. We are convinced that when we get to the end of 2009 those consistent poverty rates will have increased."
Much of the difficulties that would be faced next year could be traced back to the recent Budget, he said. While increases in the social welfare rates were welcome, they were inadequate and would be wiped out by the "staggering increase in the cost of food and the staggering increase in the cost of energy".
In addition to the increased demands for the society's help, the profile of those seeking assistance was changing, with more middle class households, particularly those with families, falling into poverty because of sudden job losses.
"In some areas, two in every three calls are coming from families with children, and more than one in four calls are from people who never had to use our services before," Mr Monaghan said.
"Now as recession bites with unemployment up and projected to hit over 8 per cent next year, we're seeing a growing sense of defeat and hopelessness."
Utility and food bills were still the main worry for people contacting their local branches, but more frequently people were approaching with mortgage and other debts and the society, which was already stretched to its limits in terms of funds and volunteers was struggling to cope with these new problems. "We are most definitely in favour of a moratorium on all financial institutions even talking about repossessions over the next two years," he said.
The changes to the number of contributions required to get job seekers' benefit, coupled with the shortening of the period over which it was paid, meant there was a "time bomb" in relation to the newly unemployed who would find themselves in poverty next summer.
"Misery was high in the 1980s, but debt was low, now both are high," Mr Monaghan said.
