The Department of Social and Family Affairs has dismissed as inaccurate a claim by Fine Gael that a waiting list of 58,000 people awaiting a decision on claims for jobseekers' payments brings the number of unemployed people in the State to half a million.
Fine Gael front bench spokesman Simon Coveney published figures broken down by each social welfare office which purported to show there were 58,282 people awaiting a decision on such a claim as at October 24th.
Mr Coveney said it was “extraordinary” that so many people were waiting for jobseekers' welfare and claimed this was “proof that the published unemployment figures significantly understate the true number”.
“We have feared the prospect of 500,000 unemployed for some time but the truth is that grim spectre has already arrived.”
The claims were published in a newspaper report today.
Asked whether Fine Gael’s claims were accurate, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social and Family Affairs said they were not.
In a statement later in response to the report, the department said it would like to clarify that the Live Register figures published by the CSO each month “includes all claims awaiting decision”.
“Once a claim is registered, it is counted for Live Register purposes regardless of whether the individual is in receipt of jobseeker’s benefit, jobseeker’s allowance or awaiting a decision on their claim.”
The department said this meant that the Live Register figure of 423,639 for September 2009 included some 14,300 claimants for jobseeker’s benefit and 43,900 claimants for jobseeker’s allowance which were awaiting decision at the end of that month.
It said it had taken a series of initiatives in response to the increase in claims for jobseekers’ payments.
“Since May 2008, some 350 extra staff have been assigned to local offices, new central support units who solely decide jobseekers claims and to the department’s inspectorate, particularly to undertake means assessment.”
In addition, a number of measures had been taken in recent months to improve claim-processing procedures.
“Included in this is a new streamlined process for people who had a claim in the previous two years, an improved procedure for those moving from jobseeker’s benefit to jobseeker’s allowance and the roll-out of a new fast tracking process for the registering and deciding, where possible of claims in one dedicated appointment.”
Mr Coveney’s figures showed that the cities of Cork and Galway both had over 3,000 people waiting for a decision on jobseeker benefit claims.
Limerick city had 2,000 people awaiting a decision. The Dublin waiting list was over 14,000 in number when pending claims from all local offices were added together.