2014-04-22 - Socio Economic Review 2014 - Full text and cover - FINAL

Individualising social welfare payments
The issue of individualising payments so that all recipients receive their own social
welfare payments has been on the policy agenda in Ireland and across the EU for
several years. Social Justice Ireland welcomed the report of the Working Group,
Examining the Treatment of Married, Cohabiting and One-Parent Families under the Tax
and Social Welfare Codes, which addressed some of these individualisation issues.
At present the welfare system provides a basic payment for a claimant, whether that
be, for example, for a pension, a disability payment or a job-seeker’s payment. It then
adds an additional payment of about two-thirds of the basic payment for the second
person. For example, following Budget 2014, a couple on the lowest social welfare
rate receives a payment of €312.80 per week. This amount is approximately 1.66
times the payment for a single person (€188). Were these two people living
separately they would receive €188 each; giving a total of €376. Thus by living as a
household unit such a couple receive a lower income than they would were they to
live apart.
Social Justice Ireland believes that this system is unfair and inequitable. We also
believe that the system as currently structured is not compatible with the Equal
Status Acts. People, more often than not, women, are disadvantaged by living as part
of a household unit because they receive a lower income. We believe that where a
couple is in receipt of welfare payments, the payment to the second person should
be increased to equal that of the first. Such a change would remove the current
inequity and bring the current social welfare system in line with the terms of the
Equal Status Acts (2000-2004). An effective way of doing this would be to introduce
a basic income system which is far more appropriate for the world of the 21st
century.
3.4 basic Income
Over the past 12 years major progress has been achieved in building the case for the
introduction of a basic income in Ireland. This includes the publication of a Green
Paper on Basic Income by the Government in September 2002 and the publication of
a book by Clark entitled The Basic Income Guarantee (2002). A major international
conference on basic income was held in Dublin during Summer 2008 at which more
than 70 papers from 30 countries were presented. These are available on Social Justice
Ireland’s website. More recently, Healy et al (2012) have provided an initial set of
costing for a basic income and new European and Irish Basic Income networks have
emerged. 29
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These networks are the European Citizens’ Initiative for Unconditional Basic Income
and Basic Income Ireland.
76 Socio-Economic Review 2014