Social welfare spend up 1.5% to €20.8bn last year
Almost 2.2 million people were benefiting from a weekly social welfare payment at the end of 2010, according to the latest data from the Department of Social Protection.
Publishing her department's annual report for 2010 this evening, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said over 2 million claims were processed during the year with over 85.3 million payments made.
Minister Burton noted that weekly payments are made to over 1.4 million people as well as payments in respect of a further 190,000 qualified adults and over 494,500 children.
"Supports administered by my Department provide for the complex and multi-faceted needs of people at every stage of life," Minister Burton said.
"Continuing to reflect the trend of recent years and re-affirming the Government's commitment to the welfare of all those in need of support, social welfare programme expenditure increased to €20.8bn in 2010 - an increase of 1.5% over the previous year.
"Behind these statistics is a wide range of people who are supported by my Department, including families, workers, jobseekers, people with disabilities, carers and pensioners," the minister added.
Over 900,000 payment reviews were carried out last year as part of the Department's fraud control activity.
The annual report also shows that 394,000 people received state pensions last year and over 591,000 families were in receipt of monthly Child Benefit, a drop of over 11%.
Family Income Supplement was paid to more than 28,000 families, and while the Carer's Allowance dropped slightly, the Carer's Benefit payment fell by just under 13%.
