Hanafin says job losses higher than official figures show

SOCIAL Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin has said that unemployment levels are even higher than the record rises in Central Statistics Office figures suggest.

This is because some highly qualified professionals are not featuring despite losing their jobs.

Ms Hanafin said social welfare officials and the Money Advice and Budgetary Service (MABS) have reported dramatic changes in the profile of people seeking help. But in many cases these do not appear on the live register because they opt to live off savings or do not qualify as they were self-employed.

She said this new demographic cannot be retrained easily, because they are already so specialised, and their fortunes were reliant on the wider economy.

“These figures do not necessarily show up on the live register figures because they are the last people to sign on... They are a group really dependent on an upturn in the economy.

“This is a whole group we cannot really retrain, we just have to generate employment for them,” she said.

In the year to November the number of people on the live register rose by 66.1% (106,864), the highest such rise since records began in 1967.

However, Ms Hanafin said sections of her department have evidence of another group either struggling on depleted incomes or newly unemployed.

“You would be surprised at the people coming in looking at mortgage interest relief. I have spoken to community welfare officers who have told me the profile of these people is quite different.

“They would have always dealt with people who are dependent on social welfare. Now they are getting people who are completely different — who have never had to look for welfare before.

“There have always been people on social welfare who run into difficulty, but there are people who now who have lost their jobs or who are on very low income and finding it very stretched,” she said.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Ms Hanafin said there were a lot of qualified positions indirectly reliant on the building boom.

“There are a lot of solicitors, architects and engineers who are suffering as a result of the construction industry. Because there is no conveyancing, solicitors are losing out. Because there is no building, no design, architects lose out,” she said.

As part of her response the amount of people called for training places with FÁS will increase from 6,500 to 10,000 next year. This is aimed at those anxious to get back into employment.

She said the effects of job losses are more complicated now than in previous generations.

“In the 1980s people were not as stretched on credit as they are now,” she said.

However, she said social welfare would remain a demand-led scheme that would be honoured for anybody who qualifies for it.