Social Welfare Benefits
Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel

I thank the Minister of State. I am saying that the time it takes to make an application for supplementary welfare and submit the information required can be weeks or months. In each of these cases, community welfare officers did not act very quickly. All of these people were left weeks, sometimes going into months, without income and were left borrowing money from family members. Okay, they got it back and were able to pay it back, but it put a lot of stress and worry on the people and left them owing people money all around them.
What is the difference in criteria in the means tests for the two payments? They are both means-tested payments and are similar amounts. I am not sure exactly what the difference is. It is not the Minister of State's portfolio and I do not know if he can tell me or not but I would love to know. It is an issue that affects quite a lot of people. If I am aware of three people in my locality being affected by this within a very short space of time, I am sure there are a lot more. Our hospitals are full of people, many of whom may be on social welfare payments. I understand they have to cease jobseeker's because they are not in a position to work but they should be able to claim the supplementary allowance without any hassle.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24