2,500 jobless waiting three months for Dole

Date Published: 02-Jun-2010

BACKLOGS in processing new dole applicants is reaching crisis point in Galway with new figures revealing that more than 2,500 newly unemployed in the city and county are waiting since the beginning of March to have their welfare claims processed.

New figures from the Department of Social Protection show that more than 2,000 newly unemployed people are waiting since the start of March for their claims to be processed through the Galway City social welfare office alone.

Meanwhile, the backlog in the Loughrea area is proportionately an even greater worry with more than 500 newly unemployed people waiting to have their dole payments sorted at the Loughrea social welfare office.

The two Galway offices are among the worst in the country for lengthy waiting times with only offices in Mayo have a greater than the three months wait that is being experienced by people in Loughrea and the city.

The 12 weeks or more waiting times are putting enormous strain on already struggling Galway households who have lost the income of the main earner and in many cases two wage incomes and desperately need to dole payments to be processed faster.

Last August, when the backlogs in Galway’s social welfare offices were on average six weeks and continuing to increase, the then Department of Social Welfare as it was called, claimed it was putting measures in place that would reduce the waiting times to just days rather than months.