Belgian man seeking social welfare assistance goes on hunger strike

A man who claims he has been treated with contempt by the Government after submitting an application for social welfare assistance has gone on a hunger strike and has warned he will starve to death unless he receives the help he needs.

Belgian national Jan De Neubourg, who had been living in Ireland for 15 years, said he has been waiting almost four months for the Department of Social Protection to process his claim and the despair he is experiencing has forced him to take such drastic action.

Mr De Neubourg, who lives with his wife, Marie-Claire, in rented accommodation in a rural area near Killarney, Co Kerry, suffers from severe depression and high-blood pressure and admits to having made three attempts to take his own life in the past.

The 56-year-old said he has been in financial dire straits since his pension, which had been paid by the Belgian authorities, was cut off last May. That decision is being appealed through the courts in Belgium and their only source of income is a small pension his wife receives from Belgium.

“Our dreadful financial problems forced us to apply for social welfare payments as far back as May 18.

“To this day, we haven’t received a single cent, nor any explanation for this,” Mr De Neubourg claimed.

His health doesn’t allow him to work and when advised he could be waiting up to nine months to be approved for disability benefit, he asked for a supplementary income allowance to help him to survive.

Mr De Neubourg has written to Social Protection Minister Joan Burton as well as officials at her department but he insists he has not received any satisfactory reply.

“All I get are letters seeking more information and then more information again,” he complained.

As the ultimate protest, he has started a hunger and thirst strike and he said yesterday that it would continue for as long as necessary.

Lying in bed at his rented home in Headford, Killarney yesterday, Mr De Neubourg said he felt weak and weary but he insisted: “I’m determined to go all the way if it comes to it. I am sick of being treated so badly and what I have can not be called a life.”

Killarney deputy mayor Donal Grady, who has made several official representations on Mr De Neubourg’s behalf, said he has “absolutely no doubt in the world” he will carry out his threat to starve to death.

“He is not a well man and the way he is being treated is a total and absolute disgrace. I will predict here and now that if this man does not receive help, he will be dead within two weeks. There will be a nasty end to this,” said Mr Grady.

A Department of Social Protection spokesman last night said it was not policy to comment on individual cases.