UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE may be allowed to “sign on” using their mobile phones to lessen the burden on civil servants.
Jobseeker benefit claimants will receive random phone calls on their mobile phones asking them to sign on. The calls will be automated and will ask claimants to confirm security details and their status.
The mobile phone signing-on will operate by voice recognition. A trial will begin in the new year.
Those on benefits will receive calls at random. If they fail to answer or respond to the calls three times, they will have to attend a meeting at their local social welfare offices, with the possibility of having their benefits cut.
Claimants will also be able to sign on using a digital signature pad.
At present claimants sign on manually once a month at social welfare offices, a process that generates long queues and must involve a member of staff.
Minister for Social Protection Éamon Ó Cuív said the purpose of the drive towards automation is to free up staff for other tasks.
He said random phone calls were “not an unfair imposition” for those in receipt of welfare payments and that it would be a better system to catch out welfare fraudsters than the present system where claimants sign on by appointment. “These are not big brother checks. We are protecting those who are genuinely out of work. Every saving we make from people who are scamming the system is money that won’t have to be taken from those who use the system legitimately,” he added.
The measures will be contained in the new Social Welfare (Miscelleneous Provisions) (No.2) Bill 2010, which will be published today.
It also contains a provision to ensure that all landlords in receipt of rent supplement must supply a tax reference number to the Health Service Executive.
