[UK] Minister backs new reforms to banish poverty

from Ireland On Line

Courageous new reforms are needed for the Government to tackle child and pensioner poverty and to help lone parents, it was claimed today.

Insisting cash handouts were not the only answer, Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan said there was now a window of opportunity to bring about major social change.

This year alone one euro in every three the state spends will be on welfare.

But Mr Brennan stressed: “The easy route is to salve our social conscience by signing the cheques and hoping the problems will go away. The honest route is to go behind the payments and confront the problem.”

Mr Brennan said it was vitally important that welfare was not seen as a permanent solution as it would only ease social problems and never completely solve them.

“That is why a one size fits all system will not provide the answers. Welfare support systems must be tailored to the specific needs of individuals and should be seen as stepping stones to achieving a better quality of life,” he said.

Addressing hundreds of delegates at the the National Anti-Poverty Strategy’s social inclusion forum in Dublin, Mr Brennan said 80,000 lone parents, caring for 130,000 children needed help in escaping from welfare traps on the paths to training, education and work.

He said the continued existence of child poverty in an Ireland of exceptional wealth is unacceptable and must be banished and warned that the threat of pensioner poverty must be confronted and addressed.

“These, and other reforms in the rent supplement scheme and in increased activation measures, will greatly intensify our efforts to eliminate poverty from the Ireland of the 21st century,” the minister said.

He added he was very keen to see an ambitious and achievable National Anti-Poverty Action Plan to tackle poverty and social exclusion.

“We should set targets that can be reached but that at the same time will stretch our capacity to deliver across the wide range of policy areas that impact on poverty and social exclusion,” he said.

The minister said, however, some successes had been seen. Results from a recent EU survey on income and living conditions in Ireland showed that those at risk of consistent poverty has been reduced from 8.8% in 2003 to 6.8 per cent in 2004.

And between 2000 and 2006 direct spending on welfare more than doubled from €6.7bn to €13.6bn while the average payment increase in Budget 2006 was 10.5%, almost four times the rate of inflation.

The Forum provides those who are not directly involved with the social partnership process with an opportunity to contribute their views on, and experiences of, the implementation of the Anti-Poverty Strategy

Some 400 delegates attended from dozens of community groups and charities, such as Saint Vincent de Paul, Pavee Point, Barnardos and the One Parent Exchange Network, which have informed the Department of Social and Family Affairs of the areas they feel need to be worked on.