THE Free Legal Aid Centres (FLAC) has called on all the political parties to clarify their position on social welfare before the election.
In a statement FLAC said the effect of the comments by the PD leader, Ms Mary Harney, on lone parent allowances had been to produce mass confusion, even though her intentions in relation to these allowances remained unclear. This had been worsened by the responses of the other political parties.
"Ill conceived proposals to reform social welfare entitlements as a means of scoring political brownie points are frightening and serve to generate terror in certain sectors of the electorate where real hardship is felt by those relying on social welfare payment," it said.
FLAC asked the parties to make clear their intentions on other aspects of the social welfare system, like the need to improve on inadequate rates of payment. Existing levels meant that there were more people living in poverty now than in the 1980s, it said.
It also called for the extension of family income supplement to include the self employed and workers on schemes, the introduction of legal aid for social welfare appeals and the expansion of the independent appeals system.