One in six people in Ireland are living below the poverty line, while more than 100,000 people with jobs live in poverty, a new report has revealed. The number of “working poor” – defined as people with jobs who are still in poverty0 – has continued to rise since 2009 despite economic recovery and growth, Social Justice Ireland said in its Poverty Focus 2018 report. A total of 780,000 people live in poverty today and of these, more than a quarter are children. This means 16.5 per cent of the Irish population lives below the 60 per cent median income poverty line, the report said. Social Justice Ireland says the Government should begin to address the problem of working poor by making tax credits refundable.

Source: The Irish Times March 20, 2018 00:22 UTC