WELFARE BENEFITS for carers, lone parents and children are among the areas likely to be the focus of a group established by the Government to identify spending cuts across the public sector, Minister for Social Affairs Mary Hanafin has said.
The group – dubbed An Bord Snip Nua – has asked the Department of Social and Family Affairs for detailed information on welfare schemes which have expanded significantly over the past five years.
Among the benefits which have grown over this time are the half-rate carer’s allowance, the respite care grant, the childcare supplement, as well as increases in various welfare schemes.
However, Ms Hanafin has insisted that the priority will be to protect vulnerable people reliant on social welfare.
“In total, there are 53 different schemes and anything you ever try to do to reduce costs is hugely sensitive and very difficult,” she said.
“I won’t be recommending anything . . . They are all valuable schemes. For example, the half-rate carer’s allowance provides a service in keeping people out of nursing homes,” she said.
“Allowing lone parents to work and earn additional money; increasing the respite care grant from €1,000 to €1,700; rates of payments have all shot up; the child benefit budget has increased hugely. All these schemes were worth bringing in and are valuable to support. It’s very difficult to take anything away.
“As a Government we have to discuss all these different things, but we always accepted that people who are dependent on social welfare are people who have to be protected.” Ms Hanafin pointed to the Government’s decision in the last budget not to cut overall social welfare spending, despite the strain on the public finances. She hinted that any reductions would probably focus on reducing spending “around the edges”, such as the decision to cut child benefit for over-18s.
She added: “Certainly, the expansion of schemes will have to be looked at every very carefully.”
While the Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure Programmes, the so called An Bord Snip, is expected to report back to the Government in the coming months, Ms Hanafin said any decision to change welfare spending would most likely take much longer to implement.
“Social welfare [spending] is practically all determined by legislation. It’s not easy to change, even if you wanted to. That’s why social welfare changes tend to be part of budgets.”
The department is also hoping to save in excess of half-a-billion euro this year by cracking down on welfare fraud. Ms Hanafin said the public are seeing more visible forms of anti-fraud measures through the department’s participation in vehicle checkpoints.
“These multi-agency vehicle checkpoints are set up by the Garda Síochána and include agencies such as the Revenue Commissioners, Road Safety Authority, Department of Social and Family Affairs and waste management divisions of relevant local authorities,” she said.
“At the checkpoints, gardaí stop vehicles and refer certain vehicles to individual agencies where the occupants are interviewed.”