Government 'to cut social welfare budget by €700m'
It has been reported today that €700m will be cut from the budget of the Department of Social Protection next month.
The Irish Times reports that the Department will bear the brunt of cuts in the Budget, accounting for a third of all expenditure adjustments.
The Department of Social Protection is the highest spending area of Government. It has an annual budget of €21bn and deals with 1.4 million people through social welfare, benefit and pension payments.
It is understood the Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton had been told to cut €822m, but she has managed to convince her Cabinet colleagues to change that figure to €700m,using the rise in the number of unemployed to argue that cuts of that magnitude are not feasible.
However, the Government has already committed to no cuts to social welfare - its thought they are focusing on areas like eliminating social welfare fraud, cutting the rent supplement budget and "activation" measures for the unemployed.
