INOU demands real increases
In its pre-Budget submission launched on Friday 13 October, the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed (INOU) called for an increase of £14 in Unemployment Assistance ``instead of the slap in the face handed out by McCreevy last year of a £4 increase, with £40 going to those in the top tax bracket''.
The INOU also called on McCreevy to take minimum wage earners out of the tax bracket altogether and to introduce a Parental Childcare Payment of £20 per week so that all parents are supported in their childcare costs.
The INOU also proposes a number of changes, including an increase in training allowances for scheme workers and a commitment to provide high quality training and guaranteed job offers to over 35s who have been unemployed for over five years, and for people in low skilled jobs. The INOU is also calling on all 33 VECs to institute literacy programmes to address the scandal that one in four Irish adults suffer literacy difficulties, and it wants the totally inadequate grant available to disadvantaged third level students doubled, which would bring it to £4,000.
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