For councils, NGOs, TDs and newsrooms
Who is missing out in your county
The Department of Social Protection holds no county figures on who misses out on a payment; it told us so in writing. We build them from its own recipient counts and the Census, and write them up per county so a committee, a campaign or a newsroom can use them.
What a county brief contains
- Three payments as standard: the Household Benefits Package (no means test from 70, so the gap is hard to explain away), Carer's Allowance and Disability Allowance. Others on request, where the data exists.
- The county against the country: recipients, the group the payment is for, the index, the rank, how many people the shortfall is, and what it is worth a year if take-up is the reason.
- The method and every caveat, written so an official cannot dismiss it and a journalist can quote it: a take-up index, not an eligibility count, with the Census tables and the Department dataset named.
- What to do with it: the question for the Minister, the Dáil question wording, the local services to route people to, and the free check to put in front of them.
- A page per payment, dated, as a PDF and as a web page you can link to.
Sample: County Kerry
Built live from the Index, so it reads as the brief would.
| Payment | Getting it | In the group | Index | Shortfall |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Household Benefits Package No means test from age 70 | 11,236 | 20,468 | 86 1 of 26 | 1,769 people short; €742,538 a year if take-up |
| Carer's Allowance Means-tested (the partner's income counts) | 3,839 | 3,535 | 103 12 of 26 | above the national rate by 122 |
| Disability Allowance Means-tested (the partner's income counts) | 6,587 | 6,748 | 121 25 of 26 | above the national rate by 1,130 |
Recipients: Department of Social Protection, quarterly recipients by scheme and county, 2026Q2. Groups: Census 2022 (CSO), summed from electoral divisions. The index is the county's recipients per person in the group, against the national rate (100). It is a take-up index, not a count of eligible people: the Census holds no income. The full table for all 26 counties is on the Missing Money Index, and the county's own page is here.
Price
€450 per county brief: three payments, the method, the caveats, the sources and a page per payment; further payments €120 each; all 26 counties as one report, €4,500. The underlying data stays free and open (CC BY 4.0) for everyone, journalists included; the brief is the analysis, the extra payments and the time.
Ask for one
Email zak@peoplespocket.com with the county and the payments that matter to you, and whether it is for a committee, a campaign or a story. We reply within two working days with a date.
Why us
We built the first county take-up measure for Ireland from the Department's own numbers after it refused, under Freedom of Information, to say who misses out. The Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection wrote to thank us for our work on unclaimed payments, and our research has been reported by the Irish Independent. Every figure we publish is tied to an official source and re-read there every night; the method is on how we check.