Public sector workers forced to look for welfare to survive

One third of households are now the ‘working poor’

Public servants are queuing up for social welfare in an effort to make ends meet. Clerical officers and staff officers are applying in their droves and qualifying for emergency social welfare assistance to meet mortgage repayments and household bills.

Ironically, while the Government is taking away with one hand in pay cuts and pension levies it’s having to fork out with the other as full time public sector workers are feeling the pinch and struggling to meet their financial commitments.

One well paid principal officer in the Department of Education told the Sunday Independent, “This is not at all unusual now, in fact it’s quite common, everyone in the civil service knows about it. Even staff officers with kids are getting hand outs from the social welfare. It’s amazing what’s going on and a bit strange that the Government are cutting wages and having to top them up with welfare payments. You would wonder sometimes, what’s the real saving.”

There is a raft of social welfare entitlements for which even people in work can qualify if they make a sufficiently strong case. The Department of Social Welfare, MABS the money advice bureau and citizen advice centres confirm that they are over run by families seeking assistance and applying for family income supplement (FIS) rent and mortgage allowances, school books and clothing subsidies and other emergency social welfare payments. Low paid public servants average about €450 a week.

The news comes as a further 70,000 SIPTU members joined the work-to-rule in the public sector last week, swelling the numbers from IMPACT, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, CPSU , Unite, the Public Service Executive Union and the three teacher unions already involved in the go-slow, to almost 250,000 public service employees.

One local authority official told the Sunday Independent that some people in the public sector are struggling and are no longer hiding it. “At one staff meeting this week a colleague announced, ‘I’m on family income supplement and I’m not afraid to say it. It’s nothing I’m ashamed of.’ These people have children, their partners are not working and they’re under the threshold to qualify for social welfare, there’s no question about it. But it’s a pretty crazy situation for people on a salary if they have to top it up with family income supplement, what’s the agenda? People are struggling, like lots of families are struggling, especially those who bought a house at the wrong time, they’re scared and at their wits end.”

This is borne out by the latest data from the Money and Budgeting Service (MABS) whose end of year report for 2009 showed the number of people seeking help with debt and mortgage repayments more than doubled last year to 24,800. The bulk of new clients were married, aged 26 to 40 with children and a mortgage.

“We are seeing more and more people seeking advice and support from low pay categories who are in difficulty with paying for utilities and other debts. We help people who are finding it hard to make ends meet whether they have a wage or not, we wouldn’t know where they work as we don’t collate that kind of information,” explained MABS spokesman Michael Culloty.

On Wednesday the Government confirmed that the unemployment figure for last month was 436,936, a rise of 13,000 since December and a jobless rate of 12.7%. Data from the Department of Social Welfare also revealed that unscheduled social welfare payments by the State in 2009 rose by €244 million to a total of €1,048m, an increase of 23%. €508m of this went on rent supplements and related payments.

Father Sean Healy of Social Justice Ireland

In a policy statement this week Father Sean Healy of Social Justice Ireland called on the Government to recognise the problem of the “working poor” which accounts for 39.6% of all households, a total of 116,000, where the head of the family has a job.

Family Income Supplement (FIS) is a weekly tax-free payment available to married and unmarried employees with children. It is designed to give extra financial support to people on low pay and the income threshold varies according to family size. If you are getting FIS you may also be entitled to the fuel allowance and the back to school clothing and footwear allowance.