A widows' and widowers' lobby group will meet the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Ms Coughlan, today to urge a reversal of the decision to cut social welfare entitlements.
The cutback takes away the entitlement of widows and widowers to additional disability, injury or unemployment benefits, based on their social insurance contributions.
Last night members of the National Association of Widows in Ireland met to prepare for today's meeting with the Minister.
The life president, Ms Eileen Proctor, said they would be urging the Minister to reverse the decision to withdraw the half sickness and unemployment benefit to working widows or widowers and others in receipt of social welfare pensions. "We want to try and get the Government to make a U-turn," she said.
Mr Michael O'Halloran of the Senior Citizens' Parliament, who spoke at the meeting last night, said the Government insisted the social welfare entitlement was being taken away because it was an anomaly.
"But this is not an anomaly. The benefit has always been there. The purpose is to deal with illness and unemployment as a short-term measure. It is not a second pension," he said.
He said it was an attack on the whole system of social welfare. "Taking this benefit away is mean."
He called on widows and widowers to be active politically to stop the change taking place. They would have to explain to the Minister that it was not good enough. "Get up and get out there and lobby just as other groups do," he told them.
He said the proposed cut would create problems particularly for widows with children.
A debate will begin in the Dáil today on a joint private members' motion by Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens against the cuts.
The motion calls on the Government to reverse the cuts to the social welfare entitlement of widows and widowers and for the entitlement to be restored. The debate continues tomorrow.
The reduction was one of the Government's 16 separate reductions in eligibility for various social welfare allowances announced following the publication of last November's Book of Estimates.