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Emergency Welfare Not Paid...

Over 33% of claims to relief scheme not paid...

MORE THAN one-third of people who applied to the Government for emergency welfare support to help pay their mortgage last year did not receive a payment in 2009.

Figures released by the Health Service Executive (HSE) show 13,469 of the 18,443 people who applied for mortgage interest supplement payments in 2009 were granted relief.

The remaining 4,974 people were either refused support, withdrew their application or are still awaiting a response from community welfare officers. The scheme operates to provide support to people unable to meet their mortgage repayments due to a change in circumstances, such as loss of a job. Under the scheme, households receive an average of about €365 every month to help them cover part of their repayments.

There has been a sharp rise in the number of people receiving mortgage interest supplements since the recession took hold. At the end of December 2009, the number of people availing of the scheme was 15,100, compared with 4,000 at the end of 2008.

The scheme cost the exchequer €60 million in 2009 and this figure is expected to rise as the number of homeowners losing their jobs increases.

Despite the number of people applying for the scheme, the HSE does not keep separate statistics on the number of people refused payments by community welfare officers. This has led several TDs to criticise the fairness of the scheme, which is administered by community welfare officers in the eight former health boards.

Fine Gael TD Olwyn Enright said the HSE figures demonstrated the arbitrary and unfair way the scheme was operating.

Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin is currently reviewing the mortgage interest supplement scheme.

She is expected to publish a report next month detailing changes to it.


Report by JAMIE SMYTH - Irish Times
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