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THE GOVERNMENT HAS agreed a €400 monthly payment for households that are hosting Ukrainian refugees.
The payment will be opt-in, so households do not have to avail of the payment, but if they do it will be backdated to the time they began hosting the refugee or refugees.
The payment is to be a flat €400 regardless of the number of refugees being hosted and will apply to pledged accommodation whether the individuals are staying in vacant accommodation or sharing the same property as the householder.
Speaking this afternoon, Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman says the scheme will be administered Department of Social Protection and will apply to households that have committed to hosting refugees for six months.
O’Gorman said it is “the government’s intention” to see the first payments in the scheme made by the end of July.
“Individuals seeking payments will have to self-declare, they’ll have to provide details of their PPS, the PPS of Ukrainians living in their property and Eircode etc,” O’Gorman said.
There will be penalties in the event of any false declarations being made. The payments won’t be assessed for taxation purposes and won’t interfere with any other social protection payments either.
O’Gorman said today at present there were 900 Ukrainians living in pledged accommodation across the country but that the full cost of the scheme could not yet be established.
He added that he expects that “significant numbers of families” will not decide to apply for the payment.
“We are aware that there are significant numbers of families who probably won’t take this up, that they’re doing this as a gesture of solidarity but we also thought it was important to have it as a recognition of the additional costs that families will bear for for this offer of solidarity.”
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Sounds like they’re hoping most people won’t apply for it. I think that they could be wrong. The cost of living is rising all the time and €400 isn’t really a lot. People shouldn’t feel guilty about applying for it either.
I know a small hotel getting 33k every month for 50 refugees in the place.
Good money to be made for hoteliers….
And only a few staff employed.
How can we as taxpayers continue to pay for all this.
@PHB090: Hosting with families is a much better all round option, much cheaper and better than living in a hotel room in the middle of nowhere where a lot of these hotels are.
Not easy taking a family into your home…. Fair dues to those who do it, I wouldn’t begrudge them anything they get but apart from the 400 euro they will need a lot of other support not only from government but from family, neighbours and friends. If you can’t host give a hand to those who do.
@PHB090: And you do realise the hotel is probably losing money don’t you? Let’s say the refugees take up 12 rooms. Normal it’s €100 per room per night for guests. So thats €1200 per night potential earnings. That’s potentially €36000 per month for the rooms alone. Now factor in the loss of bar and restaurant sales due for the month due to those rooms being full of refugees and not guests.
@PHB090: That’s only €22 per head per day.
Strange statement re many not availing of it. People put their hands up and opened their doors to strangers to help them, with no payment promised. 400 euro a month for what could be 3 generations of a family is not a huge payment but why would people not apply for it if it helps them to continue hosting?!
The magic money tree is shedding more money. What a Government!
Don’t really understand the reasoning behind the flat €400 payment that is independent of the number of refugees or the type of property in use.
Perhaps it is to stop people abusing the system by overcrowding already vulnerable people for profiteering purposes?
However, surely there could be a nominal additive amount above some baseline for each additional refugee that is housed. This would ease the burden of increased utility bills etc.
@Derek Murphy: Just a thought, as you must have a PPS number for everyone to apply are the government assuming that refugees are contributing to the household out of their social welfare payments?!
@Derek Murphy: It needs to be as simple as possible to get it up and running ASAP, there will be “winners” and “loosers “. 400 is more than enough for some /not enough for others but to start introducing different payments for different situations would be a nightmare to administer.. Review committees, discretionary payment officials..!!! .. I’m getting depressed thinking about Karen in Sutton complaining to Joe about only getting 400 a month for the inconvenience of sharing her 2nd downstairs toilet with Olga from Marriupol!!!
400 who can live on that with the way the prices are going up
We have two families on two sites ( holiday home and main residence)- do we only get one payment?
@ChronicAnxiety:
Not clear really , but the fact that your Eircode is a requirement , would indicate they would pay for the location as well ??
@ChronicAnxiety: Yeah I’d say so… If you only had one person you’d get the same…. Dems de breaks!!!! Far too complicated if you go down the rabbit hole of trying to have a payment for 1, 2, 3 people, 1, 2 children, 1,2,3 rooms, number of rooms, shared bathrooms, 1, 2 houses.etc etc.. It would take ages and there would still be people moaning. The 400 euros is not ideal or fair to everyone but should cover most bases.
Is this Payment only for Private Houses as Social Houses don’t pay Property Tax or is it every house that takes in Refugees I’m only asking
It’s not enough to support a host family.
1. A host family taking on a college student for a few weeks gets approx 130/140 a week (per student)possibly more when they agree to catering for them.
2. No household is equipped to manage the emotional state of any human coming from a war. Will the gov put in place additional family support and host family supper, eg. Coucelling, community reps etc.
3. No host family is equipped to take on the possibility of having a family with them for the foreseeable with no end date. Does this not possibly leave them in an emotional conflict if the host families circumstances change over the coming months/years
The gov need to do more in order to avoid conflict, emotional turbulence and backlash over decisions that do not support refugees
@Ciara O’Regan: hmmmmm….usually if anyone is worried about any of your points you probably should decide that hosting is not for you…..So what your saying is an extra €500 or € 600 payment per month on top of the €400 been proposed would then put your host family in a better position to emotionally help these war torn people ??? So at €400 per month I’m not emotionally qualified to help them but at €1,000 per month I’ll bloody try my best to help….Really don’t see your point whatever way u put it !
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