Honest welfare claimants lose out

Madam, – My partner recently informed the Department of Social Welfare of his attaining one day a week work for a period of …

Madam, – My partner recently informed the Department of Social Welfare of his attaining one day a week work for a period of several weeks, assuming he would have his dole payment stopped and for it to resume once the work is finished. This is, however, not to be the case and all money will cease from the end of June.

Meetings with my local HSE community welfare officer and Citizens Information Centre resulted in me coming to the guided conclusion that my family would be better off if my partner and I separate, I move home to my parents, he stays in our apartment with our child and I quit my job. The outcome of this for us would be that our income would increase substantially thanks to rent allowance, loan parent’s allowance, two people being on the dole and family income supplement. Hardly a productive use of taxpayers’ money!

I wonder how long our coffers can afford to sustain the amount of fraud which we all know is rampant under these conditions.

The incentive is surely for claimants to either turn down small amounts of work (which can often be the first step out of long-term unemployment) or to lie about work they have sourced. This system is not geared up to honest people who want to work; it forces people to lie to meet entitlement targets and to avoid losing benefits they rely on.

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Up until now I have seen social welfare payments as a means to bridge a gap while the recipient sources work. Now I see there are people who claim the full range of benefits who live a far more flamboyant lifestyle than I do . . . they go on holidays, they take their children to Communions in limousines – they don’t even have to work 40 plus hours a week.

– Yours, etc,

AMY DAWSON, Clontarf, Dublin 3.