SPEAKING ABOUT the delays people are experiencing with their social welfare payments, the leader of the Fianna Fáil party, Micheál Martin said it was placing a huge burden on families and that the people were fed up of hearing “mumbo jumbo” explanations from the departments.

During Leader’s Questions today Martin asked Taoiseach Enda Kenny about the management of the social welfare budget and the delays in many social welfare applications, including the carers allowance, disability allowance and pensions. He said:

We are looking at an initial application taking up to nine months and then the appeal taking a further six to nine months again.

He said he heard that it can take up to three months for the application to get from the department to the appeals office and asked why this is the case. In terms of the carers allowance Martin said:

It can take up to three months to get to the appeal office. In terms of the carer’s allowance, people can be dead and buried before they hear back.

Cynical attempt to save money

He added that the delays were a “cynical attempt to save money” adding that there was a “very significant assault on lone parent families emanating from the Department of Social Welfare”.  He said that 2,500 lone family payments that were soon to be moved to Job Seeker’s Allowance would see a €50 reduction per week for those families, which Martin said was “unacceptable”.

Enda Kenny said it was regrettable that there was any delay in any appeal system, but said the supplementary payments are available to those who are awaiting the decision of their appeal. “That means no one is left out in limbo,” he said.

The strategy behind the changes in the Lone Parent Allowance was to give flexibility for people to “play their own part in their own lives and that of the economy”. He said “hopefully” the delays and the clarity around decisions on appeals could be dealt with more swiftly in the future, adding that it was a matter of priority for the government.

People in limbo

Martin said that Kenny’s words would be of  ”cold comfort” to people who are “in limbo”. He asked the Taoiseach to stop using phrases like: “I would like to think” stating that it was the Taoiseach’s job and the job of the minister to see that the times are reduced to a reasonable timeframe.

He also criticised Kenny’s phrase about people playing a part in society, stating:

We’ll take €50 off you a week so you can have ‘flexibility’ to play a part in society… that is insulting and the people cannot stand that mumbo jumbo coming from government departments on a daily basis.

Enda Kenny said he had “no time” for Micheál Martin’s “false anger coming in here week on week”.

(YouTube/Christina Finn/TheJournal.ie)

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