A wait of months for those with no work

The soaring numbers of jobless people in Westmeath has meant that those out of work face weeks without dole due to the pressure on staff at the local social welfare office.The Department of Social Welfare has admitted to the Westmeath Examiner this week that there"s an average wait of almost five weeks for those seeking Jobseekers" Benefit - and of more than 12 weeks for those seeking Jobseekers" Allowance.One applicant told the Westmeath Examiner that when they attended at the Social Welfare Office in Mullingar last week they were told by an official there that staff have a backlog of 'nine boxes' of applications to be dealt with.The wait times in Mullingar are almost double the national average, which is 3.68 weeks for those seeking Jobseekers" Benefit, and 6.35 weeks for the Allowance.A spokesperson for the Department of Social Welfare pointed out that over the past year, the numbers signing on at the social welfare office in Mullingar have increased by more than 83 per cent.In the meantime, it means that for those looking for jobs, or who have just lost their jobs, receive not a cent to live on in social welfare - except in dire emergencies, when they can apply to the HSE"s Community Welfare Officers (CWOs) for the means-tested Supplementary Welfare Allowance.However, the Examiner has learned, the CWOs too are under major pressure because of the increasing numbers of people coming to them to apply for Mortgage Supplement payments.9,500 joblessThe latest unemployment figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the numbers out of work in Westmeath had reached 9,497 by the end of May.In Mullingar alone, there are 4,654 people on the live register: over 2,000 more than the figure for May 2008, when there were just 2,538 out of work in the town.Dáil Deputy Willie Penrose said things are serious: 'It"s a huge issue. I think it"s a disaster, people having to wait for what they are entitled to, what is theirs.'He added that Social Welfare staff are currently 'at stretching point'.'The workers there are working flat out. They"re trying to deal with it, but there"s been an extraordinary increase such as we have never experienced before. This is a relatively new situation, but it"s been building up in the last couple of months.'The Deputy said that there is also a delay within the Department of Social Welfare in dealing with redundancy applications and this too is causing major problems.The Department of Social Welfare said that 246 extra posts have been allocated by the Department to help cope with the huge numbers signing on locally. 190 of these people are being assigned to local offices, while 16 additional inspectors are in place to undertake means testing and other work associated with the processing of Jobseekers" llowance claims.