Big Families Hit with Big Cuts - a PACUB press release

Big families are being punished for a crime they did not commit through punitive cuts to child benefit.  By further reducing child benefit for the third and subsequent children, the  Government is cutting child benefit, without 'cutting' child benefit.  PACUB, the support group for families, condemns this conjuror's trick, which will hit larger families severely, when they are already at a greater risk of poverty.

“It seems that this change has been introduced to enable the Government to claim that child benefit rates have not been reduced - to fit in with election promises perhaps?,” says PACUB spokeswoman Niamh Kelly.  “Once again promises to protect the most vulnerable are being trotted out and we wonder how different is this Government to the last one.  Children are among the most vulnerable group in society and yet again they are being targeted.  Not just through these cuts to child benefit, but also reductions in fuel allowances and one parent family payments, as well as extra charges for the health and education services that families use.  I noted that the Government was claiming that an ageing population was adding an extra burden onto the health services.  Well that is why we need more children   Investing in our children is investing in our future, but  this Budget will deter families from having more children as well as penalising those who do.”

Reducing child benefit for larger families is also contrary to the vision of Sean Lemass who originally introduced a universal allowance for the third and subsequent children in a family. 

Budget result: Bankers 1, Children 0

PACUB's press release condemns a Budget that targets children and benefits bankers

Children, the one group in Irish society that did not party, did not borrow recklessly, did not spend stupidly are being targeted to bear the brunt of the cuts in this cruel Budget which savagely targets children and their families. PACUB, the support group for families, condemns a Budget that is taking an axe to child benefit, tax credits and other essential supports for families and also increasing taxes and so many charges that they cannot avoid.

“Many parents will try to protect their children by not telling them about this Budget and its effect on them,” says PACUB spokeswoman Niamh Kelly. “The children will not know about the presents they didn't receive, the extra help in school they needed, the healthy food they did not eat, the heating they did not enjoy. They will accept their lives as they live them, but they will be suffering, they will be missing out on opportunities that would enrich their lives and enhance their futures.

“These cuts will mean more children living in poverty, a backward move after all the progress in recent years.  PACUB is also very disappointed that families with children on Social Welfare will not receive a compensatory increase in the qualified child allowance as they did last year.  And what are the plans for 2012? It’s hard to believe that there will be even more cuts.  We’re very afraid child benefit go the same way as the early childcare supplement : cut, cut, gone!

“Children and their families are being hit from every angle, with social welfare cuts, cuts in education and health services, increases in charges and taxes.  They are the sector of society being most unfairly targeted, but they will be left picking up the pieces.

“Saddest of all will be the casualties, the families who have to leave their homes - to be rehoused at more cost to the State, the families that will break up, with all the trauma that causes to children, the suicides, the emigrations. Others will struggle on, but without hope. There is no vision in the Budget of a better and fairer Ireland at the end of the four year programme. Just pain.”