So pissed off social welfare is killing me

Blackie

i have being going to the social welfare office since june , its now 11 october there still processing , i have no money cant afford food now , cant pay rent , esb , anything , yet when i went in there on friday to ask, as i have been doing for the past few weeks i got told im holding people in the q up , that "oh were only onto processing people that applied in feb" wtf this is a joke , how am i suppose to survive , to make things worse i lost my part time job which give piss all pay the reason i had to go to the office in the first place and because i am going back to education college , they are also telling me that i might not get anything else but my backdated welfare , my back to college form might not be accepted because i got a grant last year of 3000 euro , which was hardly enough to survive on , yet because im repeating "funny i dropped out cause i could not afford as bills simply rent etc was crazy" so i worked any hours i could , decided i wanted to return to college now that i want a better future then this, yet they never told me in all the time i spent there that i could go somewhere else an get my financial situation sorted, i have had no pay now for just over a month ill be homeless if i can get some payment off them wtf am i suppose to do now ? , i can hardly go to college if i can fing eat food, im so lost

Xiney

Visit your community welfare officer and apply for supplementary welfare allowance.

meglome

There's a friend of mine who's waiting for 4 and a half months. He hasn't even got the means test visit yet that he needs. He's planning to go down and get the supplementary benefit as he'd like to keep food on the table. It should be pretty straightforward.

alrightcuz

seriously i have no sympathy for ye people, you complain about the system yet don't use it. must so ye have something to complain about.
the dole office is up the walls it could take weeks to process a clam it was always like that its not new. thats why the community welfare officer will hand you a cheque every week to the value of the dole so you wont starve and so you can pay bills this service has been there at least 10 years, im sure the person you were dealing with told you this start listening,stop complaining,move forward . call in to your local clinic ,get a ticket ,que ,go in, explain your situation ,walk out some bit sane:D

mikemac

OP, this isn't new
In 2004 in "boom times" it took nine weeks to get my dole claim sorted. I was signed off long before I got backpay. I don't blame the front-line staff over this

Unemployment has multiplied since 2004 so backlogs exploded.

As said, go see your CWO and get supplementary welfare

bog master

Just a quick question here as the last time I had to avail of Social Welfare was in 1994, then with a high unemployment rate it took 6 weeks, albeit a somewhat complicated case being self employed at the time.

Might I assume a fair degree of computerisation has happened since, we did have a benchmarking system for the civil service which promised them higher wages for productivity gains. The number of civil service employees has increased, I know of no evidence where social welfare workers were transferred to other departments when we had "virtual full employment", so how come they cannot cope? What were they doing then in this period of full employment?

I think its scandalous one has to wait many weeks to get his/her entitlements.

malene

and I'm STILL waiting for claim and backpayment to be processed back to SEPT 2008.

RCIRL

This is upsetting to see claims taking so long, its clear to see how another one of our Governmental system fails miserably when its required in a time of need. The usual attitude of waiting until its broke to fix it. Their is no excuse for not having a system in place to cover the job losses.

We have been lucky not to have any recent natural disasters, if something like this should happen God only knows how many would suffer due to head in the cloud excuses and mismanagement over the many years.

Its sicking to know I am lucky because I am not waiting for my 12 week back dated entitlement, to be robbed of pride standing in a dole cue watching others who clearly never worked hard on behalf of themselves or Ireland receive their dole with a beaming grin.

Remember its your entitlement, don't allow them to make excuses and force you to think otherwise.

Its been well over a year now which is more than enough time to set up a system capable of meeting the payments you are entitled to. My advice is to research your entitlements and demand them.

Xiney

Just a reminder that this isn't a forum for ranting about the government or the civil service.

alrightcuz, please watch your tone.

marymc

I'm just so darned lucky. I applied for 5 weeks in the summer when I was out of work (am still out of work, but also out of the country so, huh, screw me). My mother picked up my cheque.

For five weeks benefit, after 10 months of working and paying tax, I got...

€22.

Gosh, I just love Ireland.

[/sarc]

Am now going to investigate thes CWO, which I've never heard of.