The Social Welfare Bill proposes to penalise unemployed people who refuse jobs which are deemed ‘suitable’ or decline to take up training described as ‘appropriate’.
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If enacted, the law would cut payments by about a quarter to those who turn down training courses, while those refusing job offers would have their entire dole payment disqualified.
The bill, published yesterday by Government, also proposes to remove the one parent payment when the youngest child reaches 13.
The current cut-off age is 18 or 22 for those in full-time education and satisfying a means test.
Candy Murphy of the One Family organization said that without access to jobs, training and affordable childcare, the proposals concerning One-Parent Family payments would push more lone parents onto other forms of welfare and into deeper poverty.
Brid O’Brien of the National Organization for the Unemployed underlined the shortage of appropriate courses while criticising the absence of a promised PRSI subsidy for employers taking people off the dole queue.
Labour’s spokesperson, Roisin Shortall called the Bill ‘worthless’ and without genuine job and quality training opportunities and help in areas like literacy.
I personally agree .I believe that long term welfare payments produce a dependency ,where people become institutionalized into collecting benefits .This breaks their spirit as they become reliant on the security of their payment .Many good able people have been caught in the welfare trap and have failed to get out of it or to grow as individuals because of their dependency on welfare ,Unemployment or other welfare payments should be there to protect the most needy and not a lifestyle decision .
This is not the time to try to cut back on welfare payments due to the lack of employment opportunities
