BUDGET 2015: TOWARDS OUR SOCIAL RECOVERY
HIGHLIGHTS OF BUDGET 2015 ■
Tax relief for low and middle income earners
■
Significant investment in job creation, housing and education
■
Vital supports maintained and spending increased
John Lyons TD Phone: 01 618 3280 Email: john.lyons@oireachtas.ie After seven tough budgets in six years, Budget 2015 aims to raise living standards again and give something back to hard-pressed families around the country. Tax Relief In Budget 2015, people will start to see some benefits of recovery with money in their pockets. Low and middle-income earners in particular will notice an increase in take home pay as a result of changes to USC and tax rates. 80,000 low paid workers will be removed from paying USC altogether. Investing in Services For the first time in years, budgets can be maintained or increased rather than cut, thanks to the strong signs of economic recovery. Public services like health and education and new capital funding for social housing are priorities in this Budget Creating Jobs This Budget brings an end to the public service embargo. Through Pathways to Work and the Action Plan for Jobs 2015, we continue our drive to get people back to work. Budget 2015 is not a give-away budget. It gives modest increases back to people who may have struggled in recent years. Everyone must share in the recovery and this Budget is a first step in achieving that aim.
BUDGET 2015: BUILDING OUR SOCIAL RECOVERY €2.2 BILLION HOUSING INVESTMENT In Budget 2015, building new family homes is a priority: ■ Over €2.2bn in funding for housing for the next three years. ■ In 2015 alone, over €800 million has been allocated for the housing programme– the first major investment in housing since 2009 and a 40% increase in spending on 2014 levels. ■ This increased investment will deliver 7,500 family homes in 2015 and a total of 40,000 family homes by 2020. ■ Spending on homelessness services will increase by over 20% to €55 million.
EDUCATION - 1700 NEW TEACHERS AND SNAs Investing in education is a key Labour priority in Budget 2015: ■ New Teachers & SNAs: €88m in 2015 will ensure 1700 new teachers and SNAs will be employed in our schools during 2015. There will be 900 new classroom teachers in primary and second-level schools, 480 resource teachers and 365 SNAs. ■ Class Sizes: For the fourth year in a row, Labour has protected the class sizes in our schools. ■ Back to School Costs: An additional €5m for school book funding in primary schools, on top of the €15m current budget. ■ Free Broadband for schools: We are investing €3m to ensure the high-speed broadband which has been installed in all post-primary schools is available to them free of charge. ■ Early Childhood Education: Under Budget 2015, we will spend €600,000 on the immediate recruitment of the first ever team of early childhood education inspectors to greatly improve the quality of early childhood education.
CHRISTMAS BONUS RETURNS THIS YEAR AT 25% RATE Christmas can be a time of greater financial strain for families. Under Budget 2015, we have secured a Christmas bonus of 25% for all people on long-term social welfare payments, including pensioners, families with children and people with a disability. This payment will benefit over 1.16 million people.
SUPPORTING FAMILIES: €5 EXTRA ON CHILD BENEFIT Many families have been under financial pressure over the past number of years. Budget 2015 will see an increase of €5 in Child Benefit, from €130 to €135 a month to help support children and raise living standards for families. 613,000 families will get this increase from January. The funding for the School Meals Programme is also to increase by €2million to €39 million in 2015.
TAX RELIEF MEASURES Tax is being reduced for low and middle-income earners to ensure that those at work take home more and begin to benefit from the recovery. Some of the key changes aimed at low and middle income earners are: ■ A further 80,000 low paid workers are being taken out of USC with an increase in the entry point to €12,012 ■ Cut in lower rates of USC from 2% to 1.5% and from 4% to 3.5% ■ The standard rate band of income tax has been widened by €1,000 to €33,800 to take 33,000 people out of the top rate ■ The marginal rate of tax has been cut by 1% for workers earning from €33,800 up to €70,000. ■ For high earners over €70,000 the marginal rate remains unchanged.
BUDGET 2015: PRIORITISING WORK Budget 2015 provides an extra €3 billion in resources for the domestic economy. This will support an additional 50,000 jobs next year, with unemployment falling further to 10% by the end of 2015. ■ As part of the Pathways to Work scheme in 2015, €1.6 billion will be made available for 300,000 work and training places. ■ €12 million for the JobPath scheme. This matches long-term unemployed with appropriate training and job opportunities. ■ The number of JobsPlus positions has been doubled to 6,000 with a focus on young unemployed people.
HELPING FAMILIES BACK TO WORK The Back to Work Family Dividend is a new scheme under Budget 2015 to help jobseekers with families return to work. It allows jobseekers to keep the child payments for their social welfare payment for two years when they take up a job. This includes those who move to selfemployment, such as back into the construction sector, and those on One Parent Family Payment. The scheme will be worth €1,550 per child in the first year of employment or self-employment and half that amount again in the second year.
€35 MILLION RINGFENCED FOR MENTAL HEALTH ■ Budget 2015 provides for a further €35 million for mental health services. ■ This brings to €125 million the total investment ring-fenced by the Government for mental health services since 2012. ■ This will enable the HSE to continue to develop and modernise our mental health services in line with the recommendations of A Vision for Change. Specifically it will allow more staff to be hired to improve: ■ Adult Community Mental Health Teams
■ Specialist Community Mental Health Teams
■ Child and Adolescent Mental Health Teams
■ Suicide prevention initiatives
PENSIONERS AND PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES Over €3 billion has been allocated to support older people and services for people with disabilities under Budget 2015. As well as the new €100 per year water support payment for the Household Benefits Package this includes: LIVING ALONE ALLOWANCE INCREASE The Living Alone Allowance will increase by €1.30per week, bringing the rate up from €7.70 to €9. This is a payment for both pensioners and people disabilities living alone. This is the first increase in this payment since 1996, and will benefit over 177,000 people. ENDING THE PENSION LEVY Pensioners have made a significant contribution to our economic recovery in recent years. The 0.6% Pension levy was introduced to help fund the Jobs Initiative. It played an important role in the positive jobs’ trend with 72,000 new jobs created since the peak of the crisis in 2012. SENIORS ALERT SCHEME €133m is being invested under Budget 2015 in Community programmes, including €46m for the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme. This includes funding for Seniors Alert, which supports older people with installing monitored alarms so they can continue to live securely in their homes.
Cllr Duncan Smith
Cllr Áine Clancy
Cllr Andrew Montague
Cllr Brendan Carr
087 9862686 duncansmithfingal@gmail.com
087 7635406 aine.clancy1@gmail.com
087 908 0409 andrewmontague@eircom.net
087 207 5921 brendan.carr@dublincity.ie
John Lyons TD @JohnLyonsTD /JohnLyonsDublinNorthWest
Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2 Tel: 01 618 3280 Email: john.lyons@oireachtas.ie Web: labour.ie/johnlyons
0612
Working with your local Labour Team