{"id":66486,"date":"2025-10-08T06:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/66486\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T06:21:18","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T06:21:18","slug":"people-wont-feel-they-have-got-a-lot-of-joy-from-budget-says-pensioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/66486\/","title":{"rendered":"People won’t ‘feel they have got a lot of joy’ from budget, says pensioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government has \u201ctried to be fair to most groups\u201d, pensioner Mary Ena Pyle, said, but she does not think people will \u201cfeel they have got a lot of joy\u201d.<\/p>\n

The \u20ac10 weekly increase in social protection payments, which will benefit pensioners, is lower than last year\u2019s \u20ac12 increase.<\/p>\n

Ms Pyle, 82, said \u201cpeople are inclined to expect what they got last year, and people will see that as a lessening rather than an increase\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said the benefit of the increase in her pension is likely to be offset by the rising cost of living.<\/p>\n

If I get a little bit more money in my hand, I think, are the things I spend it on going to be cheaper?<\/p>\n

Pensioner Mary Ena Pyle<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what people look at \u2013 what\u2019s in my pocket?\u201d<\/p>\n

Having worked for Failte Ireland for more than 30 years, the reduction in VAT for hospitality businesses and hairdressers was one measure in the Budget that caught her eye.<\/p>\n

She welcomed the reduction in VAT for hairdressers, saying it would help people who \u201cget a cut and set a few times a year, like at Christmas\u201d, adding \u201clittle things like that can make a difference\u201d.<\/p>\n

Alone, the charity for older people, published a pre-budget submission calling for an increase in the state pension by a minimum of \u20ac22 a week, and said 45.6 per cent of older people living alone would have been at risk of poverty last year without cost-of-living support.<\/p>\n

\"MaryMary Ena Pyle is a volunteer for the charity Alone (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n

Ms Pyle has volunteered with Alone for five years and said: \u201cIt\u2019s very small, and very sad what people tell you they can\u2019t afford, like an ice lolly, for a lot of people small things are a luxury.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said many people she meets have come to rely on that one-off support, have expected similar measures this year, and have \u201cbuilt it into their budgets\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Topline<\/p>\n

Budget 2026<\/p>\n

Topline takeaways from Budget 2026<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dublin grandmother has a focus on the next generation and said she is \u201cdefinitely in favour of pension auto-enrolment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers described the measure in his speech as \u201cone of the most significant reforms in our history\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ms Pyle said she has \u201ctried and tried\u201d to speak to her grandchildren about the importance of pensions and said \u201clisten to any young person and you\u2019d think highway robbers are coming to them\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government has \u201ctried to be fair to most groups\u201d, pensioner Mary Ena Pyle, said, but she does…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66487,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[72,176,61,60,174,175],"class_list":["post-66486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}