New social welfare proposals criticised

There has been strong reaction to new social welfare legislation that would see a cut to the Lone Parent payment - and in the benefit to unemployed people who refuse jobs or decline to take up training offers.

Under the terms of the Social Welfare Bill, published late yesterday evening, lone parents whose youngest child is over 13 will no longer be able to claim one-parent family payments.

And unemployed people will be disqualified from collecting jobseeker's allowance if they refuse an offer of suitable employment.

SIPTU President Jack O'Connor has described the proposals as "heartless" and "reprehensible beyond belief", saying the cuts penalise the most vulnerable in society.

He also said the Bill was timed to "catch people unawares" so as to minimise the response to it.

"But the timing of it, at the end of the day, is the least offensive aspect of it and the least damaging aspect of it," he said.

"Most obvious, and most damaging, is the fact that there is no policy whatsoever - as far as employment and job creation is concerned - other than to pander to the whims of those at the top of the banking system and the international money markets."

Brid O'Brien of the National Organisation for the Unemployed said the proposals are counter-productive.

"We would be concerned that there are insufficient places out there, particularly quality places, for people who are unemployed, for getting on the right education or training course that would secure them a job when the economy starts to pick up.

"We feel what they really should be doing is improving employment services, improving the social welfare system, so that they are supporting people to get back into work."

However Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment Conor Lenihan has defended the bill.

He said the cut in the Lone Parent payment was moving Ireland into line with the rest of the world.

He also said that welfare rates in this country were one-and-a-half times more generous than those north of the border.