Today I wrote to a Minister: Dear Minister Burton, I’m writing to you today with a sense of dread, disappointment and a tinge of despair. I’m an Irish citizen, member of the Labour Party, I hold a First Class Honours degree from UCC and today I signed on for the dole. I have a number of concerns about the process and the welfare system that I wish to raise with you. I was shocked when the harsh reality of the weekly payment was laid before me. I’m twenty-four years old and as a victim of the latest cut in core welfare rates I’m only entitled to €100 a week. The rent for my average size room in my mid-terrace house is €80 a week. My landlord, like so many others, doesn’t accept rent allowance. For the foreseeable future I must live on €20 a week. Minister, please tell me how you expect me to feed myself, pay the gas bill, get the bus to job interviews with just €20 per week? Please. Your defence of the cuts in core rates for under 26’s added insult to injury. Minister, I don’t need an incentive to work. I graduated as a winner of the prestigious Peel Memorial Prize and runner up for the graduate of the year award from a class of 4,000. I was elected as both President of the Societies body and Vice-President of UCC Students’ Union. I interned with Trocaire in Uganda. I maintained a 1.1 average throughout my degree despite working up to two part-time jobs. In my third year I ran the LGBT Society to such success that it was named the best student Society in Ireland by the Board of Irish College Societies. Minister, I don’t need an incentive to work and even if I did cutting my welfare rate wouldn’t have provided one. Reduced welfare rates does however make travelling to interviews costly, dry-cleaning unaffordable and real poverty a reality. It’s also unjust and unfair. I have the same costs as my thirty year old housemate yet the system tells me I’m worth €88 less a week. It’s demeaning. Beyond the measly support provided to me today I have concerns with the inadequacy of the system. On my first visit I was provided with six forms to fill out. Each one seeking similar data. Today I was also told that every time I leave the Cork region I must fill in a form. If I want to engage in volunteering I must again fill in another form. It feels endless. If I’m to travel to Kerry to visit my aging parents I must inform them. If I’m to travel to Dublin to a protest I must also inform them. Lucky for me and the staff involved I won’t have many of those forms to fill out because at €28 return I’ll be lucky if I can afford the bus to Kerry for Christmas! A question on one form asked why I thought I hadn’t been successful in finding a job – implying that I was some way to blame for the ongoing economic crisis – truth be told Minister I have done everything possible to find a job since I became unemployed. What annoyed me more than the €100 a week rate, excuses for cuts and excessive paper work was the reference to me as a customer on a form. I’m not a customer Minister; I’m a citizen, a citizen who deserves better. If you are to regain the trust and support of the young members of the party the cuts in welfare rate must be reversed. I look forward to hearing from you on this matter, Kind regards, Padraig Rice UCC Branch
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 23:29:37 +0000
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