Frontline social welfare staff need to be trained to know what benefits and supports migrants are entitled to, a group working with migrants has said.
There also needed to be better co-ordination between the Department of Social Protection and the Department of Justice over the status migrants were given while staying in Ireland and their entitlements, said the Irish Immigration Support Centre.
“In some cases, people are eligible for support and aren’t getting what they are entitled to,” said Jennifer DeWan, campaigns and communication officer with the centre.
One of the big problems migrants face is whether or not they fit the habitual residence condition, which deems them resident in Ireland and eligible for benefits. Ms DeWan said the conditions which need to be met are difficult to prove, such as the requirement to prove their main centre of interest is Ireland and that they intend to remain here.
Appealing decisions
The number of people appealing a decision to turn down a claim because of this condition trebled between 2009 and 2010, when there were 4,146 appeals.
Migrants with any work history in Ireland are entitled to supplementary welfare allowance for six months. If they have worked more than 12 months in the State they are entitled to the allowance as long as they are looking for work.
For migrants without a work history, they can apply for the one-off and discretionary payment in cases of hardship.
A report last year by the centre, Crosscare and Doras Luimní, which also give support to migrants, said some staff at social welfare offices had told migrants they were not eligible for payments, when an assessment should have been carried out.
Other instances were recorded of migrants in extreme hardship being refused urgent payments. “The State is effectively denying some people their right to a payment due to such lengthy processing times,” it said.
A spokeswoman for the department said yesterday that steps were taken to address issues raised in the report, including “training on decision making, natural justice, provision of information and on implementing the habitual residence condition”.