asked the Minister for Social Welfare if she is aware of the discrimination against people of no fixed abode who, in many cases, have to travel long distances to sign on for unemployment assistance and benefit; and if she will allow these people living in rural areas to sign on at their local Garda station.
Written Answers - Signing of Unemployment Register.
11.
All persons of no fixed abode are required to attend at their local offices between 11.30 and 12 noon each Thursday for the purpose of claiming unemployment benefit or assistance. The common pay day was introduced in 1981 to combat personation and multiple claiming of unemployment benefit and assistance on the part of persons of no fixed abode.
The common signing pay day applies to all people of no fixed abode regardless of the distance they reside from the nearest local office. In view of the general mobility of travelling people and their tendency to move about frequently, certification of unemployment by the Garda, would not give adequate control against irregular claiming at local offices.
All unemployed persons are allotted a specific time at which they are required to sign the register. In this regard it is not considered that the present arrangements for persons of no fixed abode are any more onerous than the arrangements which apply to other unemployed persons.