Official attitudes put immigrants at mercy of bogus agencies
Your report explained that migrants were “charged fees for arranging applications for Personal Public Service (PPS) numbers by bogus agencies operated by their own countrymen”.
I am also aware of a scam where intermediaries were charging migrants who required ‘evidence of address’ in order to get PPS numbers.
This involved the provision of documentation showing a hostel address where applicants may or may not have stayed.
In response, Northcumberland Street exchange in Dublin stopped accepting all hostel addresses for people just arriving into the country and looking for PPS numbers. So now there are more migrants staying in hostels requiring PPS numbers, but they are unable to get them. Your report quoted Social and Family Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan as saying that notices would be “placed in the various hostels where a significant number of Romanian nationals may stay during their first few days in the country” to make them aware that the PPS number service is free and not provided through intermediaries.
Very kind of him to give this information in the hostels that his department’s exchanges will not accept.
There is ambiguity arising from the ‘evidence of address’ required by the DSFA. Your report pointed out that applicants required a utility bill or landlord’s letter.
However, in Northcumberland Street exchange they require both. It is not hard to see how bogus agencies would get their clientele when the alternative for people allowed into the country is to be given the run-around by the department whose purpose it often seems is to look for ways of denying access to entitlements rather than facilitating it. Newcomers are entitled to PPS numbers if they have been permitted entry and are in possession of documentation such as birth certs, ID cards, Department of Justice numbers, etc, depending on nationality. They must also provide evidence of address. The purpose of this, and what constitutes ‘evidence’, is not clear. I’ve been told it is so that PPS numbers can be posted to applicants.
But this doesn’t explain why a landlord’s letter and utility bills are required and some address types are not accepted. It is not hard to see why some of this ‘evidence’ is difficult for newcomers to provide especially when many may be staying with friends without the knowledge of the landlord — just like the Irish who emigrated in the past.
However, is it the job of State officials to attempt to police use of landlords’ resources by tenants? Is it their job to provide letters in order that the bank’s requirements for newcomers opening bank accounts are satisfied? Is it their job to submit people to the humiliating, exhausting, illogical run-around prior to getting what they require in order to be able to engage with public service agencies?
No, the role of the DSFA, as stated on its website, is to provide support and services to people at various stages of their lives. “Your welfare is our concern,” it states. The department’s staff, managers and policymakers would do well to remember this when providing the PPS number service to newcomers staying at whatever address in the country, rather than sending them into the hands of unscrupulous bogus agencies ready to take their money for a free service.
User-friendly, clear, transparent systems aimed at facilitating the customer would reduce the market for exploiters.
Fiona O’Reilly
Research Officer
Mountjoy Street Practice
53 Mountjoy Street
Dublin 7
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
