The Government is proposing to withhold or reduce the jobseeker's allowance payments of those who turn down an offer of 'suitable' employment or training. ROSITA BOLANDspends a morning at a dole office to see how this would affect people who rely on the payments
IT’S WEDNESDAY morning, and there is a constant flow of people to and from the Bishop’s Court social-welfare offices, off Aungier Street in Dublin’s south city centre. Almost everyone who stops to talk to The Irish Times is aware of the proposed changes to the Social Welfare Bill, although most were reluctant to give their name. None agreed to be photographed.
The proposed changes include one to stop jobseeker’s allowance payments if a person refuses “suitable employment”, and a reduction in jobseeker’s allowance if a person refuses to participate in “an appropriate course of training”. They also include a new cut-off age of 13 for State payments for the youngest child of a lone parent.
9.50am
“Even if it’s not a great job, it’s good for the morale to get out”
Anita McPhillips is on jobseeker’s benefit, and has been out of work for 18 months. Previously, she had been working in sales and marketing for 15 years. She is seeking work.
“If you do get a job and refuse to take it, I think it’s fair enough if you lose your allowance. Even if it’s not a great job, it’s good for the morale to get out there instead of doing nothing. But even though it doesn’t affect me personally, as I don’t have children, I feel 13 is quite unfair to stop payments for a child if you’re on your own. When a child is 13, you still have to support them; they’re still at school. It’s not the child’s fault you don’t have a job.”
10.15am
"What I want is a job doing something I know"
Friends Christy O’Brien and Derek McGhee come out of the office together. O’Brien has been out of work for six months. McGhee, a painter by trade, has been out of work since last August.
“If somebody gave me a job, I’d take it,” O’Brien declares. “Anything is better than sitting at home staring at the four walls. I don’t know about the courses, though. I think a lot of them are smoke and mirrors. How relevant are a lot of them?”
“I’m a painter, and I have no interest in computers, but that’s all there seems to be – computer courses,” McGhee says. “I’ve no interest in computers. There’s no point my doing something in that line. There are so many people who are good at computers and know so much about them. If a job comes up in computers, and other people going for it have five years’ experience, who do you think is going to get it, me or them? What I want is a job doing something I know.”
10.35am
“We are seriously thinking about emigrating”
The slight, anxious-looking woman with the brown ponytail is married and has four children between the ages of two and 10. She’s an accountant who has been out of work since last August, and is on jobseeker’s benefit. She has been looking for work ever since, and admits she is demoralised by the search. There have been many interviews, but none has resulted in a job offer.
“My husband still has a job,” she says, “so we’re not as bad as others, but money is very tight. There is just enough to make the mortgage payments and have food in the fridge. There is no money for luxuries, treats, days out or holidays. I don’t mind that, because everyone has less now, but I do mind that we can’t afford things like swimming lessons for the children.
“We are seriously thinking about emigrating. We’ve more or less decided that we have to go. My husband is English, and he works for an English company, so he’s hoping for a transfer over there, and that I can get a job then too.
“I’m 37. I didn’t think at this stage of my life I’d be looking at making these kinds of decisions, but it’s school holidays next week, and we’re going to make a final decision then. I’m almost certain we’ll be going. I’ve tried and tried to get a job, and there’s nothing. We’ll rent our house out and go for a few years. My brother has four children, too, and he’s emigrating to Australia. Neither of us thought we’d be doing this a few years ago.”
10.50am
“Appropriate job – what does that mean, anyway?”
The girl in the pink skirt and candy-striped top who has just locked her bike to a nearby pole has been on jobseeker’s for two months. Previously, she had had consistent work as a legal secretary. She is still coming to terms with having lost her job, as it is the first time she has been unemployed.
“I wouldn’t agree with accepting any job at all,” she says decisively. “I’d rather be able to choose. I’d be concerned the job wasn’t in my field. And I also think they should allow you a certain amount of time to look for a job you want – maybe 18 months. It’s hard enough coming to terms with being made redundant, without thinking you’re going to have to take a job you don’t want. I’d have a big problem with that.
“I’ve paid my taxes all along; why should I be immediately forced into a job I don’t want to do? I think being forced into that situation is a bit unfair. ‘Appropriate job’ – what does that mean, anyway?
“I do agree that people need to work, though. It’s demoralising to have so little money. If I don’t get a job in my field after a while, I’ll have to think about a different career path. Several of my friends have had to do that.
“One friend was working as a solicitor. She had a master’s, she had been to Blackhall Place. When she was at college she had big salary expectations. She did have a big job. She lost it. Now she is on a Fás course. She’s been unemployed for a year, and she’s having to think about doing something else.”
11am
“If I was offered something, I wouldn’t turn it down”
“I had been working in a car rental company as a manager for 13 years,” says a woman dressed in a black T-shirt and white cropped trousers. “I’m on jobseeker’s almost a year now. I don’t fully agree with the Government’s proposal to cut payments if you don’t accept a job, but, at the same time, if I was offered something, I wouldn’t turn it down.”
11.20am
“I’d take a job even if it paid less”
“The whole point about being on jobseeker’s is in the title. If you’re offered a job and you don’t take it, then you’re not really looking for a job, are you?” asks the woman in a leopardskin-print shirt and jeans. “I think it’ll separate the genuine jobseekers from those who want to stay on the dole. I’m in favour.”
She is 26 and had been working in admin from when she was 17 until six months ago. “I’d take a job even if it paid less than what I was earning before. When it comes down to it, it’s got to be better than doing nothing. It’s really depressing not working and earning. I’m considering studying. Anything other than staying on the dole. Hopefully that’ll give me a better chance of getting a job.”
11.45am
“I’d take anything I was offered”
A man with his baby son in a pushchair says he has been out of work for two years. “I was in construction, but there’s no work there these days. I’d take anything I was offered now at this stage, although I’d prefer if it was relevant – something physical I can do with my hands. I’ve done a welding course, but it was a basic one, and you don’t get a cert for it, so you can’t say you have a cert if you go for a job. I’ve applied for another welding course now, and I’m hoping to get on to it, because you’ll get a cert on that one.”
12.05pm
“In these times I don’t think you can be too fussy”
“I kind of agree with the idea that you would get your allowance cut if you didn’t take a job,” says Daniel Long. “In these times I don’t think you can be too fussy about the kind of job you want. I see the allowance as a security-blanket payment until a job comes up, not something you’d stay on.” Until a fortnight ago Long was a sales assistant in a shop. “My hours were cut back and back, and then I was let go.”
He says he would take any kind of job on offer. “I was being paid minimum wage in my last job, so it wouldn’t be possible for me to be earning any less. But I think it would be hard if you had been on a high-paying job before you lost it, and were earning lots of money and had to take a really low-paying job. That’s a different thing. But, for me, I’d take anything, because it’s still more than what you’d get on the dole.”
12.20pm
“It’s a whole different story if you have dependants”
A woman running out of the office after her straying toddler daughter has been on jobseeker’s for nine months. She had been working in operations management. She went through four interviews for one job recently, but didn’t make the fifth and final stage, which upset her greatly. “Having your payments cut if you’re offered a job – I can see where they’re coming from, but it’s a whole different story if you have dependants. The creche fees for my daughter were a grand a month when I was working. What happens if the job you’re offered doesn’t cover that? I’d have the same concerns about the training courses. Do you get free creche cover while you’re being trained? How would you be able to do the course otherwise?”
