SVP Responses to Tax and Welfare Commission

At SVP, one parent families are the group we support most often and are consistently shown to be at a very high risk of poverty and deprivation. Before transfers (but including pensions), 70.2 per cent of one parent families are living at risk of poverty – again, the highest in Europe. After transfers, this figure reduces to 33.9 per cent. This shows that the welfare system reduces the number of one parent families at risk of poverty by 36.3 percentage points. Despite this, the risk for one parent families is more than twice that of the total population, and more than three times that of two parent families.

Responses within the tax and welfare system to evidence on targeted interventions show a commitment to improving outcomes for certain groups. For example, SVP welcomed the introduction of a higher Qualified Child Increase for over 12-year-olds in 2019. This was a significant, evidence-based policy change that alleviates some of the hardship faced by families with older children who have much higher costs than younger children. Increasing this rate in subsequent budgets also shows a commitment to improving the circumstances of households with older children, and we hope to see this trend continue, and accelerate, in coming years. However, though increases have been consistent, there still remains a €85 a week gap between the actual costs of an older child and the QCI rate as announced in Budget 2022.