Updated 17.35

SOCIAL PROTECTION MINISTER Éamon Ó Cuív has indicated that plans forcing people receiving unemployment benefit to participate in work-for-welfare programmes will be enforced next year.

In a statement released yesterday following the publication of the government’s four year budget plan, Ó Cuív said the ‘National Employment Action Plan’ – which seeks to ‘activate’ people in receipt of the dole – would be implemented for 2011. Then this afternoon, Minister Ó Cuív admitted that €65m had been overpaid to social welfare recipients last year. Around €20m of this was fradulent claims by people – the rest was as a result of “third party” error (€31m) and errors within his department itself (€4m). He gave the information in reply to a Dail question by Fine Gael’s John Perry.

RTÉ reports that in a briefing after the National Employment Action Plan, Ó Cuív clarified that the plan would mean people on the live register could see their weekly payment docked if they did not participate in its measures.

The plan follows recent legislation, RTE says, which gives the minister in charge of social measures the power to cut such payments, if those in receipt of social welfare “unreasonably refused” to participate in training courses organised by FÁS or the Department.

He added, however, that nurses ‘wouldn’t be sweeping the streets’ as a result of the plan.

The move has been condemned by the Irish National Organisation for the Unemployed, which has described the move as ‘scare tactics’.

Announcing the introduction of the ‘work-for-welfare’ plan in September, Ó Cuív said that “those who are genuinely unemployed will be absolutely delighted, and those who aren’t will disappear.”

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