The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
Budget 2015 will help families back to work, provide extra financial support for children and a range of vulnerable groups, according to Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Joan Burton. “Through the Pathways to Work strategy to reduce the Live Register, the Department has placed an unrelenting focus on helping jobseekers return to work, with unemployment down from a crisis peak of 15.1% to 11.1% now. This focus will continue in 2015, and will produce significant savings from reduced jobseeker payments, which produces a number of benefits. “Firstly, it means that overall welfare spending continues to decrease, contributing to the stabilisation of the public finances. Secondly, it ensures there will be no reductions to any social welfare scheme in 2015. Thirdly, we can use some of the savings to increase payments in certain areas to assist the most vulnerable,” she said. Main social welfare elements in Budget 2015 Return to Work Initiatives – €1.1 billion to be spent on employment …
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