Up to 10,000 families will gain an average of £25 a week from new social welfare rules which come into effect today. The change means people on social welfare whose spouses are working will not be penalised as harshly as before.
People on unemployment and disability payments will benefit from the change, described by the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, as "a first step towards alleviating a sharp poverty trap".
The change was introduced as anti-poverty groups yesterday began a poster campaign to persuade the Government to tackle social exclusion and poverty in next week's Budget.
Up to now, people drawing unemployment and disability payments could not get an increase for a dependent spouse or partner if that person had an income of more than £60 a week.
For instance, if the spouse of a person on unemployment benefit earned £61 gross a week, the welfare payment was reduced by £40. If there were children in the family, the payment was further reduced by £6.60 per child.
The rule, said Mr Ahern, "acted as a disincentive to partners/ spouses to earn more than £60 per week or to take up work at all."
Under the old rules if a man with a spouse and two children was on unemployment benefit, and his spouse earned £60 a week or less, he would receive £133.90 in social welfare payments. But if the spouse's income rose by £1 a week his income would be cut to £80.70. Under the new rules he would lose less money, and would receive a welfare payment of £114.70 a week.
In another example, if a woman was receiving a reduced rate of disability allowance, her husband was earning £78 a week and they had no children, her weekly allowance would be £57.50. But under the new rules her allowance would be £73.50 a week.
Social welfare payments are made up of two components: the basic payment for the individual and an extra amount for his or her spouse and children.
Until today, if the spouse earned more than £60 a week, the welfare payment was reduced by £40 for the spouse and by £6.60 for each child. Under the new rules, there will still be a reduction of £6.60 per child if the working spouse earns more than £60 a week.
However, the £40 dependent spouse payment will be reduced by £6 a week for every extra £5 earned by the spouse. The dependent spouse payment will disappear altogether if he or she earns more than £90 a week.
A poster campaign calling on the Government to redistribute resources in the Budget was opened by the National Anti-Poverty Networks yesterday. The group represents organisations such as the Forum of People with Disabilities and the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed.
They predicted that 5,000 local organisations would be active in the campaign.