THE ‘WELFARE CHEATS’ government campaign temporarily weakened belief in Ireland that social benefits help prevent poverty, according to the State’s think tank.

The controversial 2017 campaign encouraged the public to identify “potential cheats” committing welfare fraud.

Then Minister for Social Protection Leo Varadkar launched the ‘welfare cheats cheat us all’ campaign.

A new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) found that while 64% of the population believe that ‘social benefits help prevent poverty’, this view was temporarily weakened after the launch of the campaign.

The report found that, overall, public support for government action to reduce income inequality has remained consistently high and is above the European average.

Three in four people in Ireland support government action to reduce income inequality, according to the research.

76% of respondents in Ireland indicated that they either ‘agree’ (45%) or ‘agree strongly’ (31%) that the Government should reduce income differences. This is higher than the European average of 71%.

The research found that wanting to reduce income inequality is stronger among women, young people and the working class. Those who lost their jobs or had their income reduced during the pandemic also show higher support for reducing income inequality.

There is a higher level of support for government spending on supports for older people and childcare for working families than for supports for the unemployed.

However, 58% of people surveyed believed that ‘social benefits make people lazy’, one of the highest proportions in Europe of respondents agreeing with this statement

Younger people, those on the right of the left-right scale, and those with lower educational attainment are more likely to agree with this assertion.

With additional reporting from PA