The Poor Can't Pay is a civil society coalition that believes those earning the minimum wage or living on social welfare should not be forced to pay the cost of our present economic crisis.
We opposed the cuts in welfare payments and the abolition of the Christmas Payment in the two budgets announced in 2009 and the one announced in 2010. We published a series of briefing papers on poverty, basic welfare payments, child benefit and the minimum wage. After the 2010 budget we published a major report 'How the Poor Were Made to Pay' analysing the impact of those cuts on low income families.
The Poor Can’t Pay participated in the Day of Shame to mark the day the national minimum wage was cut by €1/hour.
During the 2011 General Election we are running a campaign to ask all candidates to pledge that, if elected, they will not vote for further cuts in basic welfare payments and will reverse the cut in the minimum wage within 6 months of being elected.
The incoming Fine Gael/Labour Government committed to both these policies, and The Poor Can't Pay strongly welcomed these commitments.
However, there is now a new attack on the income of those on the lowest wages through proposals to undermine the process which wages and conditions are set for over 200,000 low paid workers. Read more about our work to oppose this new attack here.
The Poor Can't Pay will continue its campaign to ensure that the Irish Government protects those whose income is near, on or below the Government’s own definition of income poverty.
The Day of Shame  A coalition of trade unions and community sector organisations held a ceremony outside the gates of Dáil Éireann to publicly mark the cutting of the National Minimum Wage which came into effect on 1 February 2011 – Ireland’s Day of Shame. The organisations have also joined forces to campaign for a reversal of the €1 per hour cut to the Minimum Wage ... read more Ask your election candidates to oppose any further welfare cuts and reverse the minimum wage cut. The Poor Can't Pay is running a campaign to help voters to ask all the candidates who are running in their constituency about their position on: - reversing the €1/hour cut in the national minimum wage within six months of taking office - never voting for any measure which further reduces the basic welfare payments - reviewing the way in which the universal social charge impacts on low paid workers The last Government made people who are on low incomes and living in poverty pay an unfair proportion of the costs of our economic crisis ... read more. The 2011 Budget The Budget announced in December 2010 will devastate the poorest families in the country, hitting those on the lowest wages, those who have lost their jobs, people with disabilities and children. The Minister for Finance did not even mention the most damaging cuts in his Dail speech. He wants to hide them from ordinary people and allow his TDs to keep their eyes closed while they vote them through - in an undemocratic rush this week. But we can open their eyes. Click here to see what action you can take. The Poor Can't Pay launching a new Campaign Video on 18th
October 2010. The video is part of our 'Time to Make A Commitment' campaign in which we are asking you to make a personal commitment to do everything in your power to prevent further cuts to the incomes of those on social welfare or on the minimum wage. Read more about the campaign or cut to the action and sign up. Please note that the video gadget is not visible on some versions of the Safari browser. This is a 'known problem' to Apple.
For more information on The Poor Can't Pay read a new statement of its objectives agreed in June 2010.  The Poor Can't Pay Calendar provides a handy place to keep track of the activities of a range of organisations campaigning on the same issues.
Read our Mission Statement Over 9,000 e-mails and hundreds of phonecalls have been sent to local TDs and Cabinet ministers by Poor Can't Pay supporters during since the campaign started in August 2009.
Send an e-mail to your local TD/Senator click here. Note that this action is being supported by Focus Ireland as part of their contribution to the campaign, and clicking this link will bring you onto the Focus Ireland site.
To get further information on getting involved click here Read our briefing documents here
| Note that the video embedded here is not visible in some versions of Safari.  Some of the The Poor Can't Pay Members are:
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