Welfare appeals taking 'up to a year'

UP TO 11,000 people who were refused unemployment assistance last year had to wait up to a year to have their appeals decided on by the Department of Social Protection, new figures indicate.

Fine Gael spokesman for social protection Michael Ring said the delays in processing appeals were causing huge hardship for people, while the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed said the success rate of appeals showed there were problems with how initial claims were being processed.

Brid O’Brien of the organisation said the delays in processing appeals meant those who were entitled to unemployment assistance could be out of pocket by up to €10,000.

“We are hearing of people who are also denied emergency welfare payments to keep them going while they wait for the outcome of their appeal, which means they have to rely on family to keep them going.”

Mr Ring said thousands of those lodging appeals should not have been refused in the first place.

“This means that people who are out of work and struggling to make ends meet are thousands of euro out of pocket by the time their cases are settled. Why should these people be forced to get by without any support, due to inefficiencies in the system?”

He said it underlined the need for public sector reform.

“The Fianna Fáil-led government has created a bloated and broken public sector. A key element of Fine Gael’s five-point plan . . . is to modernise our public services by rewarding innovation and penalising waste and inefficiency.”