IRISH CITIZENS refused social welfare payments because they failed to satisfy residency requirements in the Republic increased by almost 75 per cent last year.
The steep rise in the refusal rate in 2009 could be the result of the Government’s high-profile crack down on welfare fraud and an over zealous interpretation of residency rules by welfare staff.
New figures show 738 Irish citizens, many of whom are returning emigrants, were refused access to payments such as disability allowance, carers allowance, jobseeker’s benefit and the State pension.
Irish citizens refused social welfare payments because of a failure to satisfy habitual residency requirements totalled 424 in 2008, 373 in 2007, 480 in 2006 and 501 in 2005.
The requirement to be habitually resident in the Republic to qualify for welfare was introduced on May 1st, 2004, when the Government opened the labour market to workers from new EU states.
It is designed to safeguard the welfare system from abuse by restricting access for people who are not economically active in the Republic, or who have little or no connection with the country.
At the time the Government insisted the new rules should not prevent Irish emigrants, many of whom left the country during the 1980s recession, from returning and claiming welfare assistance.
“I expect that the majority of returning Irish nationals will meet the ‘habitual residence’ condition due to their family connections . . . It is difficult to envisage circumstances where a returning Irish national would not meet this condition,” said then social and family affairs minister Mary Coughlan when she announced the scheme in March 2004.
Under the rules welfare officers must consider: length and continuity of residence in Ireland or other parts of the Common Travel Area; length and purpose of any absence from Ireland or the Common Travel Area; nature and pattern of employment; main centre of interest; and future intentions to live in Ireland as it appears from the evidence.
Each case must be decided on its own merits by officers.
Sinn Féin TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said the crackdown was causing great hardship to many.
“The Government is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The result is a denial of desperately-needed benefits to people who have committed no fraud at all,” said Mr Ó Caoláin.
Crosscare Migrant Project, which is helping several returned Irish emigrants who have been refused welfare, said it is unacceptable that people who emigrated from Ireland because there were no opportunities are being told to “go away” by the State.
“It also begs the question: what will happen to the people who are leaving now . . . will the Irish State tell them to ‘go away’ when they return?” asked Joe O’Brien, policy officer at Crosscare.
A Government spokeswoman said people could be refused because they may have a spouse and/or children living elsewhere, or they may a residence abroad or financial commitments or accounts abroad.
A CITIZEN'S STORY: 'THIS IS WHERE MY FAMILY IS'
JACQUELINE SANZONE fears for her health and her future. The 43-year-old Irish citizen returned home to Tobercurry, Co Sligo, in December last year after 25 years living in the US. She has Crohn's disease – an inflammatory disease of the intestine – that requires medicine, which she says she can't afford.
"I'm afraid I'll end up in hospital because I can't get a medical card and I've been refused access to social welfare," says Ms Sanzone, who was born in New York in 1967 to an Irish mother and lived in the Republic from the age of seven until she was 21.
"When I went to the social welfare office in December I was told I'd have to live in the country for two years before I would qualify for anything. She said she couldn't do anything for me," she says.
This interpretation of the 2004 habitual residency rules is incorrect as Irish citizens who can show they have returned to Ireland to live permanently and who have family should be considered eligible for social welfare, according to official guidelines.
One of the main reasons Ms Sanzone has returned to the Republic is to spend more time with her mother, who lives in Donegal, and sister, who lives in Sligo. She has also established contact with her adoptive son, who she gave birth to in 1984 when she lived in Donegal.
"This is where my family is and I've really decided to come back from the US because I want to spend more time with my son, who I was only reunited with in 2007," she says.
"I don't know why they are giving me such a hard time," says Ms Sanzone, who has no income, no greater asset than her car and needs to provide for her daughter, who returned with her to Ireland.
"I want to get a job and I have experience of working as a medical assistant in the US. But I'm spending all my time trying to sort out these welfare issues," she says.