Over one in five adults at risk of poverty in Ireland is at work, while a third of all households at risk of poverty in the State are headed by a person with a job, according to the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori) justice department.
Its director, Fr Seán Healy, said: "These shocking statistics highlight the 'working poor' issue."
He said "these are households with incomes below € 11,000 a year for a single person, or €25,400 for a household of two adults and two children".
The figures are from a poverty study by the Central Statistics Office and refer to 2005.
They are published this morning in Cori justice's latest policy briefing on choices facing the Government in preparing the forthcoming budget. It urges that it gives priority to addressing the "working poor" issue.
"It is simply unacceptable that many of the 'working poor' are the only people who do not benefit from changes in the annual budget, and that Government does nothing to rectify this situation," said Fr Healy.
The policy briefing points out that while social welfare recipients benefited from increases in social welfare rates and people on higher incomes benefited from increases in tax credits, many of the "working poor" do not benefit because their tax bill is already lower than their tax credit. They pay no tax so when the tax credit is increased they do not benefit from a reduction in their tax bill.
Fr Healy argued that the budget should directly address this working poor issue by making tax credits refundable.
"This would ensure that all workers would benefit from the full value of the tax credits to which they are entitled, which is not the situation at the moment for many of the 'working poor'."
He continued: "Such a policy initiative would benefit the poorest working households, would make a real impact on the ongoing working poor issue and would incentivise employment."
Reflecting on the choices facing Government generally in framing the budget, he said it was essential it tackled this working poor issue and also invested sufficiently to meet its targets on social housing.
It must honour its commitments on homecare packages, long-stay care for older people and primary-care teams, and reset its targets for adult literacy.
"It is not acceptable that Government continually refuses to address the low standard of living of the 'working poor' while it has the means and the mechanism to do so", he said.
This was "totally unacceptable in a society which, for the first time in its history, has the resources to tackle these problems effectively and comprehensively".
The full Cori justice policy briefing text is at www.cori.ie/justice
