{"id":17432,"date":"2026-04-23T15:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=17432"},"modified":"2026-04-23T15:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T14:21:11","slug":"pensioners-are-falling-into-poverty-in-a-time-of-plenty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/pensioners-are-falling-into-poverty-in-a-time-of-plenty\/","title":{"rendered":"Pensioners are falling into poverty in a time of plenty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It is completely unacceptable that poverty levels and enforced deprivation rates are rising for pensioners at a time when the Government has billions at its disposal, according to Social Democrats finance spokesperson Cian O\u2019Callaghan.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy O\u2019Callaghan said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFigures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the consistent poverty rate for those aged 65 years and over was 3.4 per cent last year compared with 2.0 per cent in 2024. That\u2019s a staggering 70 per cent increase in just one year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSimilarly, the enforced deprivation rate rose from 7.7 per cent in 2024 to 9.8 per cent last year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPensioners across Ireland now live in fear of paying for the basic necessities including bills and food. This is particularly jarring considering the Spring Economic Forecast shows that the Government has billions at its disposal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe general Government surplus is expected to reach \u20ac9.2 billion this year, up from the \u20ac5.1bn surplus that was projected on budget day last year. An extra \u20ac4.1 billion is rolling into Government coffers while pensioners choose between heating and eating.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Government that cannot care for its elderly when it has billions at its disposal can only be considered an abject failure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Social Democrats have put forward a proposal for a \u20ac400 targeted energy credit for households earning less than \u20ac70,000 a year. Pensioners being pushed into poverty urgently need emergency relief.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>April 23, 2026<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is completely unacceptable that poverty levels and enforced deprivation rates are rising for pensioners at a time when the Government has billions at its disposal, according to Social Democrats finance spokesperson Cian O\u2019Callaghan. Deputy O\u2019Callaghan said: \u201cFigures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the consistent poverty rate for those aged 65 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11216,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[278,88,834,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cian-ocallaghan","category-finance","category-pensioners","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pensioners are falling into poverty in a time of plenty - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/pensioners-are-falling-into-poverty-in-a-time-of-plenty\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pensioners are falling into poverty in a time of plenty - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is completely unacceptable that poverty levels and enforced deprivation rates are rising for pensioners at a time when the Government has billions at its disposal, according to Social Democrats finance spokesperson Cian O\u2019Callaghan. 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