Free legal advice body concerned about social welfare checks

Flac chief executive Eilis Barry said there are "a number of matters of concern", including worries about "the manner in which investigations of social welfare claims are conducted by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection". Picture: Derek Speirs

The organisation which provides free legal advice has flagged serious concerns over airport welfare checks, citing one case in which an illiterate Roma man who, when approached by an official, signed a form that cut off his benefits, because he thought the man was a customs official.

Free Legal Advice Centres (Flac) raised concerns about certain welfare checks in its annual report, which also shows a rise in the number of people contacting its clinics because of domestic violence and workplace bullying.

In the report, Flac chief executive Eilis Barry said there are "a number of matters of concern", including worries about "the manner in which investigations of social welfare claims are conducted by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection".

She referred to the absence of “poverty-proofing” safeguards, where claims are suspended pending an investigation, as well as the absence of fair procedures in investigations, including difficulties for individuals whose first language is not English.

Flac represented a homeless Roma man whose claim for disability allowance was suspended and an overpayment in excess of €100,000 was assessed against him in respect of his claim for the payment since 2011, on the basis that he had not been resident in the State during that period.

Following a hearing, the assessed overpayment against the man was reduced by approximately €85,000 and, according to the report, the investigation into the man's claim was initiated "after he was approached at Dublin Airport by an agent of the department who asked the man, who is illiterate and does not speak English, to sign a statement to the effect that he is not resident in Ireland and that he wished to withdraw his claim for disability allowance".

"The man, believing the agent of the department was a customs official, signed the statement, believing that he had to do so to board his flight," the report stated.

Flac said the departmental agent declined to attend the appeal hearing, "and no satisfactory explanation as to why the man was approached ... has ever been forthcoming".

Records show the man was not under investigation at the time, meaning the check was "randomised, or based on an undisclosed policy, but not based on any reasonable cause".

Flac also raised other areas of concern, including discrimination against Roma people and Travellers.

Overall, it dealt with 26,995 requests for legal information or advice through its telephone line and network of 72 legal clinics, while also initiating 10 judicial review cases and lodging 11 discrimination complaints.

While almost 25% of all queries were in relation to family law, the areas of domestic violence and the family home each accounted for 10%, with Flac reporting a 23% increase in the number of domestic violence calls compared with the previous year.

Overall, 13% of calls related to legal services and 11.5% to employment law queries, which included a 36% increase in calls about bullying in the workplace.

There were almost 5,000 queries to the Flac clinics, and family law queries accounted for 34% of consultations — but domestic violence queries increased by almost 11% and accounted for 9% of all family law queries.

More than 200 callers to the clinics said they had experienced discrimination.

Other highlights included a representing two Roma women who were ejected from a bus and who received substantial compensation from Dublin Bus; a discrimination complaint on behalf of a Roma woman who was refused employment for wearing a traditional Roma skirt, which settled for €6,000, and High Court actions on behalf of two primary school children with complex educational needs regarding their exclusion from additional schooling in the summer, known as the “July Provision Scheme”, which were settled.

Flac also raised concerns about the use of strict confidentiality clauses by public bodies and said it considers that they are largely contrary to the public interest.

It also said that while in 2016 Ireland was found to be in breach of the European Social Charter in relation to a number of legislative provisions and practices where Travellers are threatened with evictions without appropriate safeguards incorporated into the legislation, "to date, all this legislation remains in place, and is still being used against Travellers and their families".