Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was contacted recently by a man called Colin Boardman, who is caught in a predicament. He has been working on the Gateway scheme since July 2014. Having worked for nine years prior to becoming unemployed and unable to find work despite his best efforts, he is currently one of eight people working 19.5 hours a week picking up pieces of paper on a beach for Fingal County Council. Before starting the Gateway scheme, his social welfare entitlements amounted to €392 a week, as he is living with his partner and two children. Now that he is working on the Gateway scheme, instead of being €20 better off as promised by the Government, his family situation makes him liable to tax and PRSI which amounts to €30, meaning that he is €12 worse off than he was. He has complained, but he has got nowhere with it. These schemes are supposed to be about training people and preparing them for work and for jobs, making them more employable. Is he going to become more employable picking up papers on a beach and losing money in the process rather than being on his welfare payment?

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