Social welfare benefits - Families must be alerted to entitlements

IT is mind boggling that 30,000 families are missing out on social welfare payments to which they are entitled because of failure to alert them.

Underlying the political row over this scenario, payments worth an estimated €170 million are not being made because people are unaware they qualify for them.

The figures aired by Labour Deputy Kathleen Lynch are beyond dispute since she has quoted the Department of Social and Family Affairs’ own statistics.

And although Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan insists everything possible was done to promote the payments, it is evident that Government must do more to make more people aware of their benefits.