Wheres the carrot??

I have just got off the phone with a customer that I setup a mortgage for a year or two ago. She lost her job back at the start of 2009 and has since returned to college to complete a Degree course.

When she became unemployed she signed on for social welfare and claimed her mortgage interest relief supplement. Her lender KBC Homeloans was also contacted and a plan put in place to keep things ticking over till she finished her degree and got back to work.

This woman has now just received notification from the Dept of Social Welfare that her payments will be stopped unless she resigns from her college degree course.

I have to say I am dumbfounded to hear this. This poor woman has no chance of getting a job at the moment in her field and so she has went back to college to improve her future prospects of employment and now she is being told that her benefits will be stopped unless she resigns from her college course.

This is not a joke, this person has a letter in black and white telling her in no uncertain terms that she has to drop out of her college course or face the prospect of poverty and homelessness. The only carrot being dangled infront of this woman is leading her home to her couch despite the fact that she wants to get her degree and improve her chances of getting back to work.

And there was me stupidly thinking that we are supposed to be supporting unemployed people to get the training and further education that they need. How is this woman supposed to live with €0.00 from the state. Surely she should be entitled to something.