A Dublin man has avoided a jail term for “a dirty little scheme” of fraudulently claiming more than €43,000 in social welfare over a four year period using his brother’s identity.

A former senior civil servant has been jailed for 16 months for defrauding the taxpayer out of nearly €17,000.

The Social Welfare Office in Letterkenny, Co Donegal has closed its doors today in a bid to tackle a backlog in the number of people signing on.

A CAMPAIGN group for the unemployed has criticised the crackdown on electronic dole payments as “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut” and contrary to recent government policy.