IrishCentral Social welfare - b5cc3275d518416eacb61d676e8d84d1

One in seven people on social welfare in Ireland have never worked (IrishCentral)

Mon, 20 May 2013 05:50:19 PDT

By: IrishCentral Staff Writers

New figures show one in seven people on the dole in Ireland has never worked.

Irish judge apologizes for calling state’s social welfare a Polish charity (IrishCentral)

Fri, 03 Aug 2012 02:24:21 PDT

By: CATHY HAYES

Judge Mary Devins has apologized for the “semi-racist” comments she made in Castlebar District Court last week comparing Ireland’s social welfare system to a charity for Polish people.

IMF orders Irish government to slash dole payments and make cuts to social welfare system (IrishCentral)

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 04:16:05 PDT

By: PATRICK COUNIHAN

The International Monetary Fund has ordered the Irish government to slash dole payments, cut child benefit, and take the automatic right to a medical card away from old age pensioners.

Dutch academic claims almost half of Irish families would be 'better off' on social welfare than at work (IrishCentral)

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 05:45:08 PDT

A controversial Dutch academic once member of a prestigious Dublin think-tank has made headlines by airing the claim that 44% of Irish families would be better off drawing the Dole (collecting social welfare) than workingRichard Tol, a somewhat eccentric looking Dutch economist well-known for his bizarre hair-dos, contributions to theirisheconomyie, and for once working at the ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute), said that he will likely publish the working paper under the auspices of the University of Sussex, where he now works, rather than through the ESRI, from which he has since resignedThe report, findings from which were published by the weekend's newspapers, was hastily removed from the think-tank's website, an eyebrow-raising move described as 'unprecedented' and dramatic enough to force Minister for Social Protection Joan Bruton to deny having had any involvement in its hasty deletion of the working paper READ MORE

Mother of six is jailed for three years in massive social welfare fraud case (IrishCentral)

Thu, 24 May 2012 05:07:04 PDT

By: PATRICK COUNIHAN

A mother of six has been jailed for social welfare fraud – as her car dealer husband channelled over $1.5million through their bank account.

Surge in welfare cheats as Irish struggle to cope with ongoing recession (IrishCentral)

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 08:45:16 PST

Joan BurtonIreland's social welfare system, colloquially known as 'the dole', is buckling under the strain of a never-ending economic depression, latest numbers showStartling figures appearing on RTÉie show that the number of reported welfare frauds has sky-rocketed from barely 600 in 2006 to over 16,000 this yearThat's an over 20-fold increase, and although not all of those reported can be assumed to have been 'cheating' the system, it's a safe bet that at least some of those reported were not unfounded READ MORE

Are the Irish work shy? (IrishCentral)

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:55:12 PDT

The lines at social welfare offices throughout Dublin continue to grow Here we are back again after our summer break, a few weeks in which the world economy has teetered on the brink and poor little Ireland's vulnerability has been cruelly exposed To make us feel even more depressed it's been raining -- we've had the wettest summer in years; in Kerry it was the wettest summer since records began in 1886! Plus it's been colder than normal over the past month Where's all that global warming when you need it?There was some good news at the start of summer The International Monetary Fund gave us a positive quarterly report and said we were on target in the four year plan to balance the budget READ MORE

A third of Ireland's expenditure goes toward social welfare payment (IrishCentral)

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 08:56:47 PDT

By: CATHY HAYES

Figures on social welfare spending during 2010 shows that a third of Ireland's expenditure goes toward social welfare payments, reveals the Independent.

New breed of supergrass targets social welfare cheats (IrishCentral)

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 06:29:33 PDT

By: CATHAL DERVAN

A new breed of supergrass is alive and well in Ireland – and shopping social welfare cheats to the authorities.

Irish prisoners claim millions in Social Welfare payments (IrishCentral)

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 05:10:21 PDT

By: CATHAL DERVAN

Irish prisoners have claimed millions of Euros in social welfare payments while in jail – or on the run from justice in some cases.

Social welfare numbers fall as young educated Irish flee (IrishCentral)

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 02:43:45 PST

By: MOLLY MULDOON

The number of people signing on the Live Register fell for the third month in a row and has sparked a debate that the declining figures are the result of emigration.

Irish denied social welfare because of red-tape bureaucracy (IrishCentral)

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 05:00:12 PDT

Over 3,000 returning Irish emigrants are being refused social welfare payments (known as 'the dole' in Ireland) because of erratically enforced 'habitual residency' requirements stipulating that you have to be resident in the Republic for two years before you can make a claim for paymentsAccording to media reports, this is causing great hardship Joe O'Brien, the policy officer with Crosscare, an Irish NGO working with Irish migrants, says that the welfare officers themselves often apply the laws incorrectly, and may be causing even more hardship than is necessaryThe habitual residency requirement was necessitated by Ireland's membership of the European Union (EU), and it's believed that the requirement is in place to deter foreign workers from claiming Irish government handouts without having any intention of being a long term resident in the country READ MORE

Returned Irish emigrants still denied social welfare in Ireland (IrishCentral)

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:05:20 PST

Irish citizens are still being refused social welfare in Ireland if they are returning from abroadIn 2009, 738 citizens, many of whom were returned emigrants, were refused such payments as disability allowance, carers allowance, jobseekers' benefit and even the old-age pension, because they had not lived in the State for the two years prior to the claimImmigration centers in the US READ MORE