Social welfare spend up 1.5% to €20.8bn last year

Almost 2.2 million people were benefiting from a weekly social welfare payment at the end of 2010, according to the latest data from the Department of Social Protection.

Publishing her department's annual report for 2010 this evening, Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said over 2 million claims were processed during the year with over 85.3 million payments made.

Minister Burton noted that weekly payments are made to over 1.4 million people as well as payments in respect of a further 190,000 qualified adults and over 494,500 children.

"Supports administered by my Department provide for the complex and multi-faceted needs of people at every stage of life," Minister Burton said.


Read more: http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/social-welfare-spend-up-15-to-208bn-last-year-512380.html#ixzz1SU0qQwlm

€20m scheme has only put eight in jobs

THE Government's €20m jobs initiative has only set up eight internships in its first two weeks of operations, despite advertising hundreds of positions.

The Department of Social Protection has been inundated with applications from businesses and county councils seeking to partake in the scheme. To date, more than 700 internships are on offer on www.jobbridge.ie.

While some of Ireland's top businesses are interested in taking on interns -- companies like Quinn Group, Smurfit Kappa, and Aer Lingus have all signed up to jobbridge -- very few of the country's 400,000 social welfare recipients are applying for positions on the national internship scheme.

To date, only 65 individuals have been selected to participate in the jobbridge scheme. Out of these, only 27 met the criteria to qualify for the scheme. In order to qualify, an individual must be in receipt of Jobseekers' Benefit for at least six months. Only eight individuals have started internships.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/euro20m-scheme-has-only-put-eight-in-jobs-2823683.html

Minister Burton attacks young people on the dole.

Social welfare has become a "lifestyle choice" for many leaving school, a situation which is totally unacceptable and will no longer be tolerated, Social Protection Minister Joan Burton has said.

"What we are getting at the moment is people who come into the system straight after school as a lifestyle choice. This is not acceptable, everyone should be expected to contribute and work," Ms Burton said.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Ms Burton said those who failed to cooperate with her department by not taking job or training opportunities would lose up to €44 a week.

Her comments come as savage cuts to services to the poor, schoolchildren, the sick and elderly are among proposals being considered by Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin from his cabinet colleagues.

In what is the first stage of achieving budget cuts of at least €3.6bn, proposals from every cabinet minister presented to Mr Howlin's department in recent days reveal unprecedented cuts to many essential services in health, education and social welfare, which are set to impact most on lower- and medium-income families.

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/burton-vows-to-end-dole-lifestyle-choice-2823665.html