PEOPLE in Inishowen who
reject temporary work for fear of ending up at the
back of the welfare queue have been assured they
won't be disadvantaged.
Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin said
those who avail of short term job opportunities will
not to be disadvantaged should they be made
unemployed again.
Senator Cecilia Keaveney received the clarification
from Ms Hanafin after a number of people expressed
concern.
"A number of people expressed concerns to me that if
they were to leave unemployment assistance to take
up short term job opportunities that were on offer,
they would spend months trying to get back through
the system again to regain their Social Welfare
payment," she said.
"This was obviously a barrier to having people take
up employment and also a difficult situation for
employers too."
Ms Keaveney said there had been very long delays in
getting claims converted to payments in the past.
"However, (Ms Hanafin) also indicated that to ensure
that those who took up temporary work or training
were not disadvantaged, staff were instructed to
fast-track those claims on their return," she said.
"To further speed up the processing of these
particular type of claims, enhancements were made to
the computer systems used to process jobseekers
payments. Now, where a person takes up temporary
work of up to four weeks or avails of a training
course of up to eight weeks, their claim will be
temporarily suspended and can be immediately
reinstated."
Meanwhile, she said the Minister had undertaken to
continue to review operations to give optimum
customer service where possible.
"I believe there should be no barrier left in place
that will hinder anyone from taking up a job, where
that job is available and the movement by the
Minister on this issue is most important, for
employees and employers alike," added Senator
Keaveney. |
