South and East Belfast Sinn Féin -- Building an Ireland of Equals

Fears disabled being wrongly denied benefits

Published: 30 March, 2010

East Belfast Sinn Féin representative Niall Ó Donnghaile has said he is very concerned by reports in the media that thousands of seriously ill and disabled people who are unable to work are being wrongly denied benefits and that the new system of assessing Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) was simply not working.

Niall Ó Donnghaile said,

"At the time when changes to the benefit system were announced many within Sinn Féin raised serious concerns about problems like this arising. I feared that people who are already on the breadline in many homes across the North and those who are the most marginalised in society would be faced with more form filling, more interviews, more distress, all of which will nether enhance or improve their quality of life but will have the opposite effect of removing what little security they have. Tens of thousands of pounds are now being spent on appeals and tribunals plus its also causing all sorts of problems for people coping with an already complicated benefits systems

"It's always those on low income, one parent families, and the disabled who suffer from changes to the benefits system, which a lot of time is just window dressing to keep a section of the right wing press in England happy.

"The British Government would be better spending their time being more proactive in targeting areas of social need and creating the circumstances for jobs , investment and putting in place the infrastructure to make that happen .There needs to be proper child care and after school clubs. There needs to be better rates of pay so that people can re-enter the job market on a level playing field." CRÍOCH