There's been a 64% increase in the numbers of elderly people living in poverty, according to recent CSO figures.

Almost 12% of people were living in poverty in 2024 overall, with elderly people sitting at one-in-five, while for children it is one-in-six.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) totals show there were 629,000 people classed as living in poverty in 2024.

Social Justice Ireland’s Michelle Murphy has said that one-off cost of living measures are hiding poverty figures.

“[There’s been a] substantial increase in the number of older people living in poverty in the past year,” she said.

“It's increased by 64% and, in fact, it would be more than one-in-five older people were it not for the impact of one-off measures.

“So I think what Government are going to be faced with is a substantial challenge in terms of addressing poverty levels once these one-off measures phase out in April.”

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Ms Murphy believes a lot needs to be implemented in Budget 2026.

“We're seeing the numbers of children in poverty and deprivation increasing, the numbers of older people, the number of people in employment and that's really, really concerning because we do know the long term impact on poverty for people, and in particular, for children,” she said.

“So what we need to see is immediate action from Government and action that addresses income, because if you don't address the income going into households you won't reduce poverty levels overall.”

Ms Murphy added that Government needs to look at “permanent income”.

Elderly lady wearing fleece and holiding hot water bottle, sitting near gas fire that's turned off. Image: Alamy

“Government needs to look at income adequacy and that means looking at the permanent income going into households, not just one off measures,” she said.

“So in the first instance, in the forthcoming budget, we'd be looking for them to benchmark welfare rates against average weekly earnings as a step towards indexing welfare rates towards wages over time and making whatever increase needs to be made in the forthcoming budget.

“A very ambitious poverty target with sub-targets for children and vulnerable households and making sure that in-depth poverty and social impact assessments are made for all budgetary and policy measures in advance of those measures being implemented.

“Because what we're seeing today is a continuation of very vulnerable groups having very high poverty and deprivation rates.”

140,000 people who are living in poverty are employed.

70% of those who are experiencing consistent poverty were living in rented or rent-free accommodation.

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