The Indignity of the Queue

[johnfás]

Last week I was having lunch with a friend who is currently out of work and claiming social welfare assistance. This person, who came out of a school in a poor area of Dublin put themselves through college, paid their way through a Masters and has worked hard for everything they have, giving and never taking from society. Through the fault of the prestigious leaders of our society, and through none of their own, they are now unemployed and queuing for the dole. The spoke to me of the indignity of claiming the dole, the necessity to queue in front of their peers on a public street because there are insufficient waiting facilities in their office and the diminishing self worth that they are experiencing.

Today I was driving down Bishop Street, it was raining quite heavily, and there were people queuing out the door of the social welfare office, all the way down Bishop Street, around the corner and up Aungier Street towards Wexford Street. What society are we when we cannot allow these people to sign on in multiple places such as post offices or wherever else, or to create bigger waiting areas in our building, or change the day that people can sign on in order that there is less congestion on each day.

We've stripped people of their jobs, let's not also strip them of their dignity.

[Pedro Pique]

The spoke to me of the indignity of claiming the dole, the necessity to queue in front of their peers on a public street because there are insufficient waiting facilities in their office and the diminishing self worth that they are experiencing.

Interesting . So the people in the queue are not his peers? I think he'll find they are !

[Chrisco]

There's a 2 in 5 chance that he is at least partly at fault for this predicament...

[ballot stuffer]

At the risk of sounding crass I don't think we should slash another departments budget so we can keep your mate dry when he collects his dole.

[Wendy]

As a jobseeker (love the euphemism) I think the indignity aspect is overstated. Being at the mercy of the elements is another matter, of course, and ways of preventing it should be looked into.

As I mentioned on another thread, some newly unemployed people actually opted for redundancy but the media seem uninterested in interviewing them, for some strange reason.

[Wendy]

And another thing...

There was someone on the RTE news just now talking about how her organisation would fight any cuts to the dole on the grounds that families were were finding it hard enough to make ends meet already. Hello! Since when did all unemployed people have families to support? A significant number are young and single, to the best of my knowledge. These kind of emotive half-truths make a joke out of all public discourse on the subject.

There is genuine hardship and there is the poor mouth and the latter, I fear, is alive and roaring in Ireland today.

[goosebump]

Last week I was having lunch with a friend who is currently out of work and claiming social welfare assistance. This person, who came out of a school in a poor area of Dublin put themselves through college, paid their way through a Masters and has worked hard for everything they have, giving and never taking from society. Through the fault of the prestigious leaders of our society, and through none of their own, they are now unemployed and queuing for the dole. The spoke to me of the indignity of claiming the dole, the necessity to queue in front of their peers on a public street because there are insufficient waiting facilities in their office and the diminishing self worth that they are experiencing.

Today I was driving down Bishop Street, it was raining quite heavily, and there were people queuing out the door of the social welfare office, all the way down Bishop Street, around the corner and up Aungier Street towards Wexford Street. What society are we when we cannot allow these people to sign on in multiple places such as post offices or wherever else, or to create bigger waiting areas in our building, or change the day that people can sign on in order that there is less congestion on each day.

We've stripped people of their jobs, let's not also strip them of their dignity.

This has to be the most ridiculous moan yet in Recession 09.

[swansandtyphus]

Buy a f*cking umbrella or a hooded jacket if you have stand out in the rain.

[super pedestrian]

Get your friend to put on a disguise. Nobody will have a clue who he is.

Sure he could let out a little "shamone!" to entertain the crowd. Tell him to practice his moon-walking as well.

[cactusflower]

More sympathy please.

You have to remember that there is also the obligatory RTE crew taking library shots of you shuffling along in yr. hoody trying to look invisible. Those library shots will be rerun every time Gas And Oil mentions the word unemployment or recession on the 6 o'clock news in the next twenty years. Your children will see them, your prospective mother in law will see them and the person who might have offered you a job if you had not been unemployed will see them...