Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
LAST YEAR, JOAN Burton’s Department of Social Protection spent €20.3 billion on social welfare.
This figure was down from the previous year but still represented more than 32% of gross government expenditure and 12.4% of GDP.
Today the department released its annual statistical report on social welfare services, detailing how much was spent on each area and who the 2.2 million people receiving the payments were.
Last year, expenditure on pensions increased by 2.7% to €6.5 billion. Payments were made to over 556,000 people in this area.
As you can see from the graph below, the largest proportion of the budget (31.8%) was spent on pensions, followed by working age income supports like jobseeker’s benefit.
The department spent almost €5.5 billion on these supports, with the bulk of the budget for this spent on Jobseeker’s Allowance.
This represents a decrease of 8.2% on the previous year. Within this, expenditure on Jobseeker’s supports decreased by 3.2% to almost €3.7 billion.
The next largest payment type is the One-parent Family Payment with 78, 346 recipients last year, down 11%.
The department said the payment type with the highest number of recipients is the Back to Education Allowance.
Spending on programmes such as Jobridge and TÚS increased by 4.2% to almost €994 million as a result of higher take-up.
In total, there were over 33, 400 people engaged in employment programmes over the course of last year.
Expenditure on Carer’s Benefit fell by 8.4% to over €22 million. The numbers in receipt of a carer’s payment increased, however, from 53, 847 to 58, 734 – an rise of 9.1%.
The expenditure on Illness Benefit was €648.9 million – a drop of 16.2% on the previous year. Invalidity Pensions cost €707.7 million while Disability Allowance amounted to €1.14 billion in 2013 with 106,279 in receipt of the payment at the end of December.
Some 611,366 families received a monthly Child Benefit payment, which was paid in respect of 1,168,582 children.
As the graph below shows, figures in respect of numbers of child beneficiaries have remained relatively static over the years, with most families claiming for either one or two children.
Family Income Support was paid to 44, 159 families – an increase of 36.7% – and benefitted 98,350 children.
Expenditure on the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, which is intended to contribute towards the cost of children returning to school, was €47.9 million in 2013 and the department also provided €36.7 million for School Meals Programmes during the year.
Expenditure on Household Benefits amounted to over €290.4 million in 2013. Over 782,500 people were in receipt of Free Travel which cost €75 million and Fuel Allowance expenditure in 2013 was €226.7 million, €15.3 million more than in 2012.
Today the department was eager to point out how little it spend on administration:
It also said that the number of pending claims, ie backlogs, fell by 34.8% last year. In total, some 2,062,177 claims were cleared in 2013, of which 1,744, 076 were awarded and the remainder were either disallowed of withdrawn.
The full report from the Department of Social Protection can be found here.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
When are they going to cut the welfare given to dirt bags who do nothing but steal and rob, deal drugs and are on welfare for life! Still manage to have, tv’s, cars, sky sports, 20 a day habit, money for drink and contribute f all to this country while the rest get hammered with austerity! Fair enough there are people out there who have lost their jobs and want work but not these dirt who are on welfare for live and demand everything for free
Get ready for the “I hope you lose your job” comments.
Well said Skip, this country is a joke, how can people who are long term on the dole have a more lucrative or even better life than someone who works day and night, it’s a joke. it pays to be on welfare and the long term spongers know exactly how to milk it for every penny. that’s not to mention the fraud, (remember the ash cloud etc etc) there is a chance for the creation of 1000 jobs right there. Social welfare investigators who will pay for themselves in no time. How can someone who has never worked live rent free in a house for which I am being crucified with taxes charges and not to mention negative equity, all because I contribute to society. Make those long term spongers get out and contribute to their community.
Well as the figures show there were 120,000 on it in 2006, compared with 350,000 now, did we have a massive increase in “dirt bags” or did something major happen which caused a massive amount of normal working people with families to lose their source of income.
It’s all too easy to go anecdotal and paint everyone on the Dole as free-loading wasters but the fact is that they are a tiny minority of welfare recipients, though unfortunately “Single mother successfully puts 3 kids through school and encourages social respect in them, at the same time being a full-time carer for her elderly parents and disabled brother” doesn’t have quite the same shock quality as most tabloid headlines these days. Of course there are bad apples in every basket but do you really think 350,000 (or maybe just 300k to give you some leeway) of your fellow citizens do nothing but steal, rob and deal drugs and would be delighted to be on welfare for life?
I think he was singling out those who are scamming as opposed to every welfare recipient to be fair.. Which is unusual around here!
Oops – I have no idea whether Skip is male or female, if my assumption was incorrect my apologies!
if your feeling so resentful, then go on the dole? or i guess you`d rather be another one of those steriotypes that think all long-term unemployed people, are not motivated, and uneducated. an please don`t use that patronising quotation ” there`s plenty of jobs out there”
Not what he’s saying at all….anyone who’s been on the dole since 2004 and has no form of disability and no intention of seeking employment is a lifer, not someone who lost their job during the downturn.
Some of you are wilfully misinterpreting Skip’s comment. S/he was not implying that ALL in receipt of welfare payments are dirtbirds. But if you think EVERY recipient is worthy (the lifers) your naivety is staggering.
@Martin, agreed, but they’re only ever a small, small minority of claimants. The problem is when someone’s anti-dole fit is in full swing the lump everyone into the same category and populist, crowd-pleasing politicians tar us all with the same brush and reduce payments and beef up regulations to collectively punish everyone for the offence of a minority. It’s a bit like being opposed to insurance because a small minority of insurance claims are fraudulent and assuming that therefore that all claims must be in some way so.
Correct I’m a he. Martina and goldie locks that’s exactly what I mean.
skips comment seems reasonable enough. rubberhead just seems to judgemental to see it from an unemployed perspective. well im actually on that tus thing, but thats just really to make the unemployed statistacal figures look respectful at the end of the year
Yeah and 2.2 million of them, incredibly . Well probably 50% of the type your referring to. Still incredible.
If your on the dole and you get a conviction for any non fineable offence * not sure if its sumary or non sumary * your dole should be slashed and only paid in non transferable food, rent and energy vouchers.
That’s just it Mark, the government don’t treat all claimants the same. guy next door to me since 2007, never worked and has no intention of working, never been on jobsbridge or TUS or any other scheme, now neighbour two door down lost job just over a year ago and two weeks after he passed the year he got his TUS letter and it basically told him if he didn’t take a placement his SW payments would be affected. Meanwhile in the land of narnia next door to me, life is a peach! He lives in same size house as myself and my other neighbours ALONE and receives every benefit going. My other neighbour has a mortgage and gets sweet FA, yet he was paying tax for 20 years before losing his job? The system is a shambles and not fair to former taxpayers who have become unemployed. They are the ones who should be getting the most not the lazy feckers!
What if they cut the dole by a percentage depending on how many criminal charges people have… So if someone has multiple drug charges his dole will be cut… Might reduce crime too I’m not sure tho
Reducing the dole would likely increase crime for those already involved in crime, particularly if it’s in relation to drugs (unless they’re simply buying drugs for their own use). Even if it is just buying drugs for their own use, cutting their dole would lead many addicts towards crime as an alternative way of funding it. It’s a tricky situation in various ways
Immigration happened, due to our reputation as “treasure Ireland” the term which was created by a certain nationality.
The recession is what happened. If you want to supply some hard evidence for your claim I’d be more than happy to consider it, but as far as I’m currently aware you don’t have any evidence. Want to prove me wrong? Go ahead
Skip, as I’ve said many times before – dont worry about it. Once FG and FF get together after the gen election, dole lifers will be sorted out mercilessly. Expect a lot more homelessness and petty crime especially in large urban areas.
It’s the original 120,000 that are the problem – the unemployables.
There are also thousands and thousands on disability benefits who refuse to look for work. Some people just look at the unemployment figures.
Many people with disabilities do work. People remaining on long term disability benefits is bad for our society.
The percentage of people defrauding the system and refusing to work are actually a lot lower than people make it out to be.
Got any sources for that Jack?
Disability benefit or illness benefit is only paid short term and you have to have your doctor sign your cert to say you are not fit for work on a weekly or monthly basis, there’s also regular assessments so if people are defrauding that, it’s their doctors who are to blame for enabling them.
If you wish to apportion blame – perhaps take aim at the correct source.
Disability allowance is a long term payment and it is means tested. It’s only given to you if you have been deemed unfit for work permanently. This payment is more intended for people with profound disabilities – if you would begrudge them what paltry help they get from the state then that says a lot more about you than it does about them.
Shanti, yes I did mean disability allowance. I am not begrudging them their €188 a week.
I would like to see an inclusive society where the disabled have a part in. I want them to be included in our workforce. I want them to participate in our society and communities not be left to rot away in their bedsits with their €188 ,methadone and problems.
Sorry, the majority of people on disability allowance are not methadone. I don’t mean to offend.
No jack, you didn’t mean to offend but you made your sweeping negative assumption anyway didn’t you? What about those who can’t contribute?
I don’t know how much experience you have with people in say, residential care settings – but there are quite a few of them, and they will never work. Not because they’re lazy – but because these are people who literally just don’t get life as we do. Or people who are bed bound.
As for heroin addicts, well – how employable do you think they are? And do you think they made a conscious decision to become the mess they are? Because that’s just ludicrous.. Who in their right mind would look at a junkie and say “that’s what I want to be”?
I actually know several people personally who are on disability assistance. You sound quite out of touch with reality if you think they shouldn’t be encouraged to join the workforce.
Ashanti, Stop making assumptions about me in.
I know quite a few too, and they are not capable of work.
For those who are there are income disregards and other help available for reentering the workforce – they are allowed earn €100 per week on top of their €188 before any of their allowance will be reassessed.
Depending on how long they have been disabled, they are entitled to help returning to education in order to gain the skills to enter the workforce.
It’s not like in the UK where they’re hounding people with disabilities to go to work, over here it is left up to the individual, and perhaps that could be looked at in some circumstances – but judging by the cock up the UK made of their attempts to encourage them into work – would you trust our lot?
Please also bear in mind that there is a shortage of jobs, and that kind of goes against those who have been deemed unfit for work for some time. Most employers would prefer someone who has not got a gaping hole in their cv. That is a barrier that rarely gets mentioned when we talk about trying to encourage people out of a long term spell on welfare.
You can now see why the troika were always concerned about the SW budget! This needs to be addressed as it’s just not sustainable and jobsbridge is not the answer.
What exactly needs to be addressed? And don’t give me the usual ah everyone on the dole loves being on it crap.
Oh, for the love of ___. I wrote a great, long, long, reply to your silly comment Brian but I made the mistake of cursing in the last sentence saying we’d all be “fuc~~ed” without blanking it out and it wasn’t posted. That’s really irritating. I mean why is there a decency thing here, how many 8 year old’s are reading the Journal?
Anyway, I’m not writing all that out again. But look up the term “aggregate demand” to explain why the dole isn’t just sustainable, it’s a vital economic necessity without which the country would collapse. The question being : what if the best part of 1,000,000 people (if you include all people who receive some kind of welfare payment) suddenly didn’t have money. Bad things would happen to the economy…and to the people too, but welfare is extremely important and should really be increased.
Now to check my comment…no…no cursing…If this doesn’t post I swear to ___!
fine so
The Back To School allowance is a strange one. All schools should have a book rental option to help all families. My husband works in a Deis school where the kids get their books and uniform for €100. The allowance is €200 per child so the families there are making a profit of €100 per child courtesy of the tax payer while struggling employed parents pay close to €1000 for books, uniforms and school fees every year (in Secondary Schools). There is so much waste in the Dept of SW and they don’t seem to know the half of it.
Andrea it’s €100 for primary age children.
No I’m not entitled to it a as I work but trust me I spend more than €100 on my son.
Tracksuit €40
Runners €20
School uniform including black shoes €60
Jacket €15-€20
Not to mention €60 fee to the school
Then on top I buy all his stationary, school bag pencil case etc
Oh and just to throw in the mix the crayola twistables because he’s not allowed markers are €10 a pack
€100 for Primary and €200 for Secondary school children. I would happily pay €100 to rent everything for the year and get a uniform through the school. As it stands, the costs are outrageous! And to make it worse, the new edition nonsense every few years adds to the costs. My two teens are 1 school year apart and can rarely share books because new editions come out for the younger one. I remember using books that had my brother’s name on them and he was finished school before I even started.
When I hear politicans on the radio and tv saying we’re one of the few countries in Europe without property tax or water charges , I try and twitter a response or text the shows to say we’re one of the few were getting kids back to (free) education takes three months planning and saving. Then once their back and usually on the first day for secondary schools between €100 and €150 is looked for straight away for lockers, Photocoping , and other bits as a contribution. Instead of back to school allowances for certain sections of society , why not tackle the school costs!
Back to Education Allowance is paid to adults, it’s got nothing to do with school age kids.
It’s for anyone who’s been out of work and in receipt of welfare for a specific amount of time to go back to college and upskill.
Not the Back to Education allowance, it’s the Back To School allowance I’m talking about. Families entitled to it get €100 for Primary school children and €200 for Secondary school children.
Sorry – my bad! Although perhaps the reason is that trying to get kids ready for school on far less than even what a full time minimum wage job would pay per week would be somewhat difficult?
Couldn’t agree with you more Shanti. In fact, I think that while the costs are as high as they are, struggling families (all families) should get a little more help. I just think that families who send their kids to Deis schools shouldn’t receive twice as much money than their actual costs are. The allowance is €200 per child but they only have to pay the school €100.
Ah Andrea they were the days.. With the tear stains and bread used as an eraser still on page 16 of progress in irish and Romeo and Juliet .. But your correct it’s madness and I really don’t know how people are surviving in this S Storm.
What about a coat or should the child not have one because there mam is on the social? Or should they walk there in their bare feet? Get your head outta the clouds the worst thing is people on here who’s family’s wouldn’t have survived without the social running people down who are on it now.
Peter, you wouldn’t find a single comment from me putting down people who receive SW. You would find that the opposite is in fact true. There are a rake of allowances to help struggling families in times of need. Including the SWA which covers costs such as coats and shoes throughout the year. My point was simply that the BTS allowance is not administered correctly and that the rental options provided in Deis schools should be available to other struggling parents. An allowance towards the cost of something should never exceed the cost. My husband confiscates phones if the kids are caught with them and he said most of them have I phones so spare me your “walking to school barefoot and cold” nonsense.
Andrea
They stopped helping the average joe soap on sw during the year. They used to help with money for communion etc
You only get help with clothing once a year and that’s only if you or your children are in school
Now I know of people who due to medical reasons need help to pay for clothing etc, they still get help.
Do they still get help once a year? That should be enough no? My kids only get new shoes once a year and their clothes are on them until they fall apart :-). As for the communion allowance, I don’t think that should ever have been given (and I’m Catholic). That’s a personal decision and the state should never fund things like that, only essentials.
The clue is in the title andrea The d in DEIS stands for disadvantaged…. ie the kids are already starting their education in an area of social disadvantage you rightly point out that they only have to pay the school E100 of there 200 for books ….but there are 3 parts in the allowance …. you neglected the clothing and footwear part…. the remainder is to be used so the child can purchase uniform and shoes or trainers as required …. i can remember going to school in the mid 80′s and the exclusion that certain kids were made feel because they didnt have “new” uniform and might have struggled on with the same jumper for 2-3 years…. and i for one do not begrudge anyone who needs and is entitled to get the support to send their kids to school in a decent set of clothes ….and before you ask I dont get the allowance as i work but both my kids are attending Deis schools and performing very well they get the same entitlement as any other schools…as its open to all schools to operate a book rental scheme
Joe, the €100 paid to the school pays for books, uniform, jacket, copies, pens etc. All brand new every year. And I’m not begrudging that. I just think that other struggling families could also receive some help if others weren’t receiving an allowance that exceeded their costs. And you’re right, the school is in a disadvantaged area but that doesn’t mean all the kids who attend are disadvantaged. Do your children have €700 mobile phones?
I was referring to the back to school , sorry I wasn’t clear in the post.
But my point was some people only get the clothing allowance or back to school ( what ever the name is) once a year and if you get part sw and part wage from a job they won’t entertain you one bit. Which I don’t agree with. Also taking the med card off someone who is on minimum wage or on a 3 day week is not right to me either
We should be helping people get back on their feet not penalising them as soon their foot is in the door on half on the first rung of the ladder
Not indefinitely but not taken away the exact same day you start in a job.
A grace period of 3-6 months especially if you have young children.
The elephant in the room is pensions . Most of the other payments are relatively static . I would like the department to do a 20 year projection on pensions looking at the same % increase per year .
Then compare this to the numbers of people in employment supporting pensions and your in for a shocker .
Good luck if you expect a government pension beyond 2035 , as they will bring in rules and regulations to effectively make you get the pension after 75 ……..if you make it that far and only for select few .
I was thinking the same thing. What should be happening, ideally, is the government incentivising families and having children by increasing child and family supports. Seems to the thing now-a-days for the thick-headed anti-welfare statists to scream their heads off about large families and capping child benefit at 2 kids but unless Ireland deals with it’s aging population then there won’t be enough people working in 30/40 years to pay for the pensions of those same people today who will be retired by then. Bit of a vicious cycle really. It’s either that or attract more immigrants, but generally these same people are part of the “country’s full” brigade too.
Personally I’d be perfectly happy to pay more taxes to support more children who’ll work more tax paying jobs to support me when I’m old.
Also, that pensions at 75 thing, I don’t necessarily agree with the idea but life expectancy is growing every year and will continue to in the future so they are going to have to make an allowance for that eventually. When 65 years was set as the standard by the British in the 10′s and teens of last century it was intentionally high (for the day when life ex was about 50) to reduce the number of people who would live long enough to claim it so you would assume that they’ll eventually have to make some concession to pragmatism like that again. Not that I agree with it, by the way, I just get why it would happen.
That’s why they like to keep increasing the population. They need to keep constantly widening the tax base to support the increasing number of people entering retirement which also makes limited resources like land property increase their value. Homes become smaller and smaller and more and more expensive. It’s a ponzi scheme and all ponzi schemes fail. You can see ours is collapsing, but slowly. Eventually the EU will deflate the euro by printing money as they Americans do as they will have to even they they promised the wouldn’t. This will mean any money people saved will be worth less but state debt will be a little easier to pay off….except the vicious cycle just continues, spiralling more and more out of control.
What needs to happen is that during the course of the average person’s working life, they earn enough to completely afford all their needs. This can be accomplished but what needs to happen is that home prices need to be reduced significantly. This will allow a person to use the savings to support themselves in retirement, their medical needs etc instead of passing their debt along to future generations. Currently people are told the state will pay for their retirement and housing prices are inflated because of it as housing is only expensive as people are willing to pay. The actual cost of building a house is very low.
@Mark O Connell
What gives you the right to pass your debts on to the unborn?
Debts? I’m talking about the unborn taking part in the basic social contract of paying taxes for the benefit of society. Debt doesn’t enter into it, that’s already been passed on by my parents generation. It’s a pretty fair assmption to make that the future generations of Irish will pay taxes and that those taxes will be used to pay pensions. It’s not debt, it’s my entitlement and right as a citizen of a, fairly, social democracy. Anyway, if more children are born the weight of the burden would be spread over a larger working base.
Got it in one, the pension fund that was the only good thing that was left over from the Celtic Tiger is gone, With the increased life span and reduction in population pensions will be a thing of the past, it happened in Germany and now a lot of retired people are working in Mini Jobs that pay 400 month on top of the state pension that’s been frozen and are barely surviving. In the south of Europe take Spain for example the government have basically frozen the pensions and with 6 million unemployed, 1 millions homes with every member of the family on the dole and a further million or so immigrants who have left the future is very bleak
Exactly, the real issue is the pensions , would like to c a break down of how they r paid out like ,what percentage of that is paid out to people on pensions of more than €50,000 pa. €60,000pa., etc, and multiple pensions and all pensions above standard put on public record
3 Pensions for some …
1. Private Pension
2. State Pension based on PRSI (insurance not assurance!)
3. State Pension for their “dependent” spouse.
……….. No means test ….. Daft!
Some amount of money for a broke country to spend and get no return.
Er, did they not say the largest expenditure within working age payments was back to education? Surely those newly educated people are of benefit to the economy no?
Like the ‘education’ someone gets on job bridge?
Probably more those who are getting back to education and are in college rather than signing on..
Back to Education (BTEA) is a specific payment for people who were unemployed and return to full time education. Jobbridge is an internship scheme and therefore has nothing to do with the BTEA. People on BTEA are on a range of university courses and it gives people a second chance, or indeed a first chance, as adults, to participate in formal education. It is an excellent scheme and has helped hundreds of thousands of people to break out of welfare dependency by giving them the education to help then to enter the work world.
Go to your local boozer tonight and you will find most people drinking are not working and they will be in the pub most nights of the week.
sure thats great for the hospitality business …arent people all over the internet complaining of the loss of revenue form a certain concert cancelling …. sure they’re keeping publicans in a job
3 and 4 generations of wasters..
This rhetoric is stupid, this line is used in the UK too and when they studied it in a large council area with normal unemployment they could only find one 3 generational family who received benefits, and not sure but a pension may have been included.
That’s just anecdotal evidence about generational dole claimants. Other countries in the eu have heavily subsidized education and creche and what happens is you get an educated workforce and socially responsible citizens coming out the other end. We have a culture here of not being socially responsible despite all the rhetoric being spun. The govt emphasis here is on trying to get low taxes and letting people keep their wages for themselves. A capitalist economy. This hasn’t worked and we’ve ended up in this mess with huge costs to parents for providing basics to their kids. And apparently no end in sight.
Notice a large drop in single parent claims, 11%, is this anything to do with the intensive checks on claims that happened over the last year? If so That suggests a fraudulent claim rate of 8-10%, run that (rough science I know) over all the claim areas, means anything from 1.2-1.6 billion in fraud. Excluding pensions as this is a harder area to make a fraudulent claim.
blah blah blah……..simply stop all the out of state child benefit payments, cut rent allowance for the bone idle, cut dole payments for the “long term” lazy ass spongers……ie; if you can afford to drink smoke and bet on the horses…..pay your own way !!! and if your a foreign national out of work and claiming benefits for more than 2 years…..pay them to go hime be fecked !!!!
Oh…….and grow a pair Fine Gail and stop being so PC !!
Here endeth the lesson:-)
If someone wants to be on social welfare it’s up to them and if they make it work fair play. I work hard because I like to and wouldn’t be able to sit in all day. Why have a go at them? You have the option to sit at home on social welfare to your not forced to work. If you can’t help your fellow man weather he’s good or bad what hope has humanity.
Peter that’s exactly what’s wrong with society and our economy, no fairness or equity. How can you encourage people to sit at home and do nothing but milk the system and expect others to pay for it. Employment means growth, stability, public spending etc etc etc. So your comment is very small minded and you seem to support that sense of entitlement the wasters possess. Now back to the football so good bye
Fostering business payments?
I think people entitled to a contributory pension have payed enough tax in their life time to justify the payment. As opposed to live long dolers who have contributed …….. Ehhhhh ……… Noting!
i think we should now move on to more serious matters of society, the gareth brooks saga, springs to mind…..
journal would you have a figure for the basic old age pension?
have your say