Children and Women – No applause for hitting the easy targets again

Published: Tuesday, December 04, 2012

Cuts to vital payments such as child benefit or the back to school allowance will be the tipping point into poverty for many families and must be reversed. 

In response to the announced Budget 2013, Orla O'Connor, Director of the National Women's Council said,

'Cuts in crucial payments such as child benefit or the back to school allowance will mean that more families will be pushed into poverty after this budget. More families will have to make impossible decisions between offering a healthy and warm meal for their children or going to the doctor with their sick child. The current system is not perfect but without real welfare reform, vital payments such as child benefit have been the safeguard that kept many families out of poverty. These safeguards will be seriously eroded if the cuts are not being reversed.'

She continued,

'Taxing maternity benefit will hit expecting mothers and young families at a time when many of them are already operating on a very tight budget. The additional money that women have received so far through maternity benefit is only a small contribution to the enormous costs of having a baby. The changes to PRSI will particularly hit workers earning just above the minimum wage. The majority of these are women working in catering, cleaning and the services sectors.' 

She concluded,

'We will be looking in detail at the proposals to invest 14 million into the Childcare Plus Initiative for  low income workers. But it is already clear that this won't compensate for the significant cuts that in particular women and families on low incomes will have to face after this budget.'

For more information, contact Silke Paasche, Communications Officer, National Women's Council of Ireland, Tel. 085 858 9104.