Welfare payments make up 50 percent of household income, says ESRI

The share of household income from welfare payments has risen by 50 percent since 2004.
That is according to a new report from the ESRI, which emphasises the importance of social welfare in reducing poverty.
The increase of about 100 euro per family is largely down to unemployment and salary cuts.
Herwig Immervoll of the OECD says maintaining welfare payments will play a key role in preventing people being left behind in the recovery.
“The poverty reduction capacity of the social protection system has been large before the crisis and has remained intact – that’s very important because during the recovery, there are people left behind” he said.
“Maintaining the incomes when times are toughest for them is very important; not only now, but also for the future” he added.