CHRISTMAS BONUS:"IT'S UNBELIEVABLE. It's not right, doing that to people."
Caroline, a middle-aged woman who has spent years without a job, is keen to have a say on the loss of the Christmas bonus.
“It goes a long way – it helps to buy presents for people. I know what it’s like,” she says evenly. “And it was them that put us in this predicament, not us.”
It is nearly closing time at the Social Welfare office on Thomas Street in Dublin, and there is a steady run of people signing on before the Bank Holiday weekend.
One of them, Philip Kelly, is convinced that the withdrawal of the Christmas bonus is bad thinking. “Straight up, it’s a bad idea. People rely on that money to buy presents for family and friends at Christmas. People are going to be unhappy . . . They factor it in.”
“But that’s a pimple compared to what’s going to happen to the people under 20. As soon as they realise they’re only going to get €100 instead of €200, they’re going to flip out. The crime rate is going to go nuts in some of the more impoverished areas as a result. Completely.”
The Government has suggested that halving unemployment benefits for under-20s will provide an incentive to avail of education and training. “What training? Kelly replies. “If you walked in there and tried to get on a training scheme, you’d probably be sent to five or six different quangos, and nobody will do anything for you. Plus, what jobs are you training for?”
For Ciara, another of the newly-unemployed, the thought of how she lost a great job with a solicitors’ firm last Friday and faces the “horrible experience” of having to sign on is all that’s occupying her mind. But on the under-20s, she disagrees.
“Between 18 and 20 you should probably be in college or a post-Leaving Cert course, in my opinion, and I think it’s a good way of making people better educated, better skilled, and more use to the economy,” she says.
“To be honest, it could be a blessing in disguise, even if people don’t feel it like that.”
Others point out that no two people are in the same situation.
