Redundant workers waiting over two months for social welfare assessment

SOCIAL WELFARE:WAITING TIMES of more than two months for social welfare assessment is one of the major problems facing many people who have become unemployed for the first time, an organisation working with unemployed people said yesterday.

A new website providing information for people who have been made redundant recently was launched yesterday by the Irish National Office for the Unemployed (INOU).

The organisation has seen an increase in telephone calls from people who have lost their jobs mainly in the construction, manufacturing and service sectors. Since going live two weeks ago, the website www.redundancy.ie has received some 72,000 hits.

"It is very much of its time, given the horrendous figures," INOU co-ordinator John Stewart said yesterday.

"The website focuses on the welfare rights aspect, which we see as crucial. Most people losing their jobs have previously had no dealings with the social welfare and won't know what they need to do and what their rights and entitlements are," Mr Stewart said.

Increased waiting times to more than two months in some centres for people to be assessed are causing concern, Mr Stewart explained.

"It is clearly a concern for someone who has lost their job from quite well-paid down to nothing initially. Even when welfare kicks in, it is only a percentage of what they previously earned," he said.

The INOU also expressed "deep concern" yesterday at the lack of initiatives to address rising unemployment. It has called Budget changes to the jobseekers' benefit (doubling of the number of social insurance contributions required) a "retrograde measure" that would impact on people and may dramatically change their entitlements.

"We hope this is a temporary blip and we hope some of the social welfare changes announced will be revoked," Mr Stewart said

It is "very difficult for the Government to change anything of any significance that is in this year's Budget", Minister of State with responsibility for community affairs John Curran said at the launch.

Mr Curran said more needed to be done and the existing agencies need to work as efficiently as possible. "Many haven't seen the challenges we are working with now," he said. "It has been a long time since we have seen what is happening in this country."