EAPN Ireland submission on potential benchmarking approaches to working age payments

The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) Ireland provided input on the issue of the potential application of a benchmarking approach to working age payments (including Working Age Income and Employment Supports, Illness & Disability, Carers, etc).

For EAPN Ireland, the priority for any reform of Ireland’s social protection system should be to address the issue of income adequacy. As such, the crucial feature of any effective social welfare reform, including potential benchmarking approaches to working age payments, would be ensuring that all rates of social protection payments are benchmarked against a level that is adequate to lift people above the poverty line and provide them with a Minimum Essential Standard of Living (MESL).

Read our full submission here