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Updated 12.03pm
A HOMELESS SINGLE mother has been refused the Back To Education Allowance (BTEA) after securing a place on a degree course in Trinity College Dublin.
Erica Fleming received a letter denying her the allowance, which she needs before taking up her place on a Trinity Access Programme.
Fleming and her 10-year old daughter Emily have been living in a hotel for over a year, but she has been denied the grant to return to education, because she has been working part-time.
Yesterday, she received a letter that she is not entitled to BTEA as she is no longer on a qualifying payment.
In order to qualify, she would have to have been unemployed for 234 days.
“I really am devastated, there’s no words to describe how I’m feeling,” she told TheJournal.ie.
I spoke to an official from the department, and they have told me it was pointless to appeal.
“One policies officer told me before I could get the Back To Education Allowance, as I was on my previous payment for a long time. Now they’re saying I can’t get it.”
“I’ve always worked but struggle to pay for things on one income,” she added.
I want to educate myself and be a role model for my daughter Emily and to stop needing social welfare.
“I don’t want to sit doing nothing for a year and I don’t understand why they would pay me to do this, but not help me to study?”
Department’s response
In response to a query from TheJournal.ie, a spokeswoman from the Department of Social Protection saId: “The Department does not comment on individual cases.”
A support grant is available through the Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi), funded by the the Department of Education and Skills, she said, adding:
The Department of Social Protection does not offer specific supports for students pursuing third level qualifications outside of the Back To Education Allowance (BTEA).
They added that the Family Income Supplement (FIS), which Erica Fleming receives, “is not a qualifying payment for BTEA”.
Stipend
Erica says she needed the €217 weekly stipend from the allowance to support herself and her daughter, otherwise she would not be able to attend the college.
She said the Department of Social Protection confirmed that if she stopped working and transferred to the ‘jobseekers transition’ payment for nine months, she would qualify for the BTEA next September.
“When I saw the letter I was sick,” she said.
I was so angry that because they can’t tick a box beside your name, you can’t get the grant.
Before Joan Burton’s changes to lone parents in July 2015, Erica would have been entitled to the BTEA, as she was on the One-Parent Family Allowance.
Last year however, Erica was transferred to the Family Income Supplement, a payment for low-income households working over 19 hours per week.
Barriers
Erica had applied to the Trinity Access Programme with the hope of qualifying with a degree from the prestigious Dublin institution, but says her dream is now in tatters.
Single Parents Acting for the Rights of Kids, a support group, say the decision is proof that the government’s welfare policies are disincentivising lone parents from employment and education.
“This makes no sense at all,” spokeswoman Louise Bayliss said.
“Erica is trying to make a better life for her and her daughter but is constantly facing barriers because of an ill thought activation policy.
Before [Joan] Burton’s reforms, Erica would have been able to access BTEA and now she is being punished because she worked.
“We’ve already shown examples where lone parents are better off financially if they stop working and now the door to education is also being closed.”
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Wow, about bloody time. They must have gotten bored watching the ritualistic slaughter of innocents across the border.
So when are you joining the Turkish army, Infidel? Or are you waging a war on terrorism by posting on a website under a name you reckon will annoy them….even though none of them will see it?
@Esy
You won’t catch me setting foot in any Islamic hell hole.
Amazing. So you really DO think you’re standing up to terrorists by posting on an Irish news website under a name you think they won’t like. That’s genuinely funny. “Hey, Akbar. How about we target Dublin?” “Are you crazy? There’s someone posting on some website under the name of Infidel. Clearly these people are not to be messed with.”
Come for the comments. Stay for the mental breakdowns.
I think young Infidel was broken well before he started posting here.
@ Esy
Are you a Muslim? Or just a terrorist sympathiser?
Not before time Turkey got involved at sorting out this Isis rabble, clearly Isis don’t recognise international borders so it is right to punish them..
Infidel…ESY is kicking you’re ass dude :)
35 less passengers on the Irish Mediterranean water taxi.
SS, That sounds like something ESY would say
It IS something I would say. Thankfully though, Sean and his apostrophe came along and saved me the trouble.
Your point is Mr. Shaft?
Turkey supported ISIS for long enough.
I think once it has made its point that it will continue to support them.
Closing its border and cracking down on supply routes will do more to finish the Islamic State than a year of bombing.
Well done Turkey, some more of this wouldn’t hurt.
35 is nowhere near enough. They need to go in with chemical weapons and wipe the lot of them out.
Turkey is not now, nor has it ever been in Eastern Europe. It’s the bloody middle East!
Actually it’s in both Europe and the “Middle East” have a look at a map.
I always preferred the term Near East for Western Asia, the “middle” to my eye should be “Stan’s” -Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, etc.
Asia Minor
@Susannah O’Brien….. You are right,Susannah, however Turkey is in NATO and perhaps should not be, as it has been strongly supporting ISIS and Hamas for quite a while now …..
—”Turkey’s relationship with the West, and especially the US, has been primarily strained by divergent views of the Syrian civil war. Until mid-2014, Ankara maintained an open transit policy which allowed the easy smuggling of supplies and fighters into Syria against the Assad regime.
This relaxing of border controls contributed to a sense of lawlessness along Turkey’s border and facilitated the rise of ISIS and al Qaeda’s Jabhat al Nusra franchise.—”
–http://uk.businessinsider.com/turkey-is-making-nato-very-uncomfortable-2015-4?r=US&IR=T
There are many (true) stories about how easy it has been for people to cross the Turkey Syria border but this has definitely been something that Turkey has been weak on and should be a heck of a lot stronger with. Turkey haven’t really managed to silence the media/public on it’s discussion about Suruc to the extent they have on past attacks and so it’s perhaps more likely they will be under more pressure to seal up it’s leaky borders.
Definitely NOT eastern European
They just need to get more aggressive and don’t stop till there all dead.
Time to write Turkey off any holiday plans.
Turkey had to enter. There is probably a secret agreement with the U.S. to abandon and undermine the Kurds who have been bravest in fighting the ISIS. Politically it does not suit the Turks to have a strong Kurdish entity on their border. In reality the Kurdish nation should have a state but this would mean taking part of Turkey. Something like the Basques having territory both in Spain and France.
Imagine letting that place in to the EU!
Just a show.
2 years (and just a year ago at Kassab crossing) ago they were shooting down Syrian planes and targeting Syrian bases with artillery while letting IS/Al-Nusra cross from Turkey to make a full blown ground invasion. I guess we’ll read about it in 30 years.
@ Alen J : Turkey has been attempting to enter this war for some time now, but have faced massive resistance from the public. Their prime reason has been stated publicly on many occasions. To bring down the Syrian Government. Now they can reach this objective with full public backing. They expectet ISIS would solve this problem for them, but it’s not happening. Hundreds of lorries daily cross the Turkish border near a US. army base, supplying ISIS with arms and fighters. Two German TV teams have recorded this abnormality. Also Known ISIS leaders crossing the border in both directions devoid of hindrance or control. What they forgot to show were the many lorries daily crossing into Turkey loaded with stolen oil from Iraq and Syria from which ISIS earn an estimated 2 to 3 million Dollars daily. Which banks are washing this money ?
A German TV news report – with English subtitles, shows that Turkey is sending terrorists into Syria:
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/09/turkey-israel-directly-supporting-isis-al-qaeda-syria.html
Another good German documentary:
Deutsche Welle (English)
ISIS Supply Lines Originate in NATO’s Turkey : Report
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article40347.htm
“Allahu Akbar” is all I have to say!!
Watched C4 doc about IS, they have kidnapped & enslaved 4million women & children.. I just can’t get my head around that figure… At the age 9yrs old, they marry & rape baby girls.. WTF
Then on other side USA only future growth plan for their economy, is selling Military Weaponry… Sales target 2Trillion a year.. I can’t get my head around that figure either…
Vicious cycle continues, if growing up Irish has thought me, for every innocent civilian kilt on either side, that x amount family members joining terrorist group or the army….
The only possible way forward before World War 3, kicks off is to disarm every country…
That will never happen… So what answer to extremism & top world countries arming extremism ???
Well said Gill.
I find it interesting how such a pro- LGBTQ site such as The Journal ignored how the Istanbul Pride rally was on the receiving end of a vicious crackdown by Turkish authorities.
And why do you find that interesting? Where do you suggest they fit that in to the article?
Because, as I said it’s a pro-LGBTQ site & they could have reported it in a separate article.
So do you think they should report on every instance of gay people across the world being oppressed then?
No, just countries that want EU membership.
Why just EU countries?
For the same reason you were positive about with Infidel, ESY.–This is a European news site.
The mistake ISIS made was the suicide bombing last week that killed Turkish civilians. As long as they made no attack on Turkish soil the Turks were happy to just pay lip service to the fight. Now with this second attack on the Turkish Military they have woken the sleeping dragon. Of all the Muslim Military in the region the Turks are the biggest, best armed and trained and as ISIS are about to find out their most dangerous enemy.
the middle east is getting more unstable by the week, I wonder which country or countries would want to destabilize the region and for what end. isis are a proxy ” army” .
Did they ever find those weapons of mass destruction?
yes read Hitch 22 to get details
Hitchens ‘memoirs’? For historical fact I’d be better off reading the bible
@the militant toker. The ME is already destabilized by Saudi Arabia,terror states Qatar and Kuwait founding and continuing to fund ISIS and other terrorist groups on the one hand and Iran funding Hezebollah,etc.on the other.
Turkey too has been supporting ISIS all along because ISIS is killing Kurds, Turkeys traditional victims;even as Turkey attacks ISIS today Turkey still includes the Kurds in a round-up of suspected terrorist accompanying-again Turkey has to get at the Kurds.
—”Turkish police on July 24 launched raids to arrest suspected members of ISIL and other militant groups, including the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in an apparent bid to stamp down on all sources of violence, the state-run Anadolu Agency said.
July/24/2015
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-airstrikes-target-isil-in-syria.aspx?PageID=238&NID=85853&NewsCatID=352
Patrick, I think anyone who has seen your posts realise you’re a friend of isreal ( a state that only came about because of a vicious terror campaign waged by Jews) and will never see anything wrong with how they act. you just keep believing the Zionist propaganda, don’t suppose you watched the program on T.V. last night about the Jerusalem train ? are you going to say the isrealies are within their rights to celebrate the 6 day war victory in the manner they do? of course you will, your a “friend” of isreal.
and by the way I’m not an antisemite, I hate all religions equally. not all Zionists are jewish and not all Jews are Zionists
@the militant, whilst there is no denying pjoc’s rabid bigotry towards Muslims (he is openly proud of this) he does make a valid point here. Turkey has up until now turned a blind eye towards IS activities and border crossings etc because they are fighting the Pashmerga. I know it’s difficult to pick out validity amongst his usual lunacy, but he seems to have accidentally posted some reality in the middle of his diatribe this time.
@De Wit. True to form.Radical Islamo apologists and rabble-rousers long on propaganda but short on facts always lower themselves to name-calling.The facts hurt and so you resort to slander and lies like your ilk.
De Wit and ilk do not speak for all Muslims as you think. Many Muslims are deeply ashamed of terrorists and their apologists like De Wit to the extent that 6 million Muslims every year convert to Christianity.
I respect Muslims who differ from the fundamentalists risking to their lives as you De Wit knows. Many more would speak out if ’twere not for the gangster-style ‘Rule of Apostasy’ employed against them as well as the usual hate-mongering against those who disagree with the Islamo-fascist system.
@the militant toker….Nonsense! And your way off topic anyway.
And there’s no need to emphasize you’re not anti-semeticI’m sure everyone believes that’s so.
Kudos to the Turks for getting involved at last , but when did they become an eastern european country ? ,
Part of it is in Eastern Europe, part in Asia Minor, separated by the Bosphorus. Since it became Turkey after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, it has always been referred to as a European country.
Most would consider Russia to be in Europe too, even though most of if lies in Asia by landmass. That includes the Russians east of the Urals.
Sorry but when i went to school it was in Asia , maybe they have changed things but this map says it is in Asia .
http://www.mapsofworld.com/europe/
A turkey shoot
Turkey has killed more of these militants than any other governmental military, it’s like the west really don’t care, Turkey is doing a lot to stop the spread of Isis and I think that’s very good, they are taking a no nonsense approach and I feel they can do this because they won’t be accused of inappropriate action or racism because everyone seems to find something racist these days, this is one good thing that Erdoğan has done.
Hasn’t looked like that from here. From here it looks like Turkey is where ISIL sell all their crude oil on the black market. From here it looks like a lot of the European based transnational morons who want to fight for ISIL get to Syria through Turkey. From here it looks like Turkey did not want to get involved unless it was dragged in (which it was) because that would mean indirectly helping the besieged enemy, the Kurds, and sure we couldn’t have that now, could we? Turkey has not done nothing, but it has done surprisingly less than most might have expected, considering the inhumane slaughter that’s been going on on their doorstep for years.
Erdogan has ensured Isis survive, he might not want them to thrive but he does help them.
Turkey turned a blind eye for a long time to them and the equally dangerous Al Nusra front.
@Gunesin Tadini Cikar…….Except for Turkey’s PM Erdogan’s racism…
—”by ANDREW C. MCCARTHY July 8, 2013 6:05 PM This comes as no surprise to those of us who’ve followed Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s career — he is a raving anti-Semite who got his start in an Jew-bashing theatrical production and has a long history of making idiotic remarks.
Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/352908/obama-pal-erdogans-racist-insult-against-blacks-andrew-c-mccarthy
AND FROM WIKI
—”When you ask Turkish people “Is there racism in Turkey?”, most will answer, “No, not a bit of it, I am a Turkish person myself and have never ever seen or heard of it.” But racism is everywhere, not only the kind of racism against Turkey’s largest ethnic minority group, the Kurds, but against all other ethnic and religious minorities as well, especially if your skin colour is darker than the majority of Turkish people’s skin colour. The media is full of stories, almost daily, on how black people, or Roma people, are subjected to racism in the streets of Istanbul, even by the members of the Turkish police force.
https://www.opendemocracy.net/arab-awakening/bulent-gokay/race-and-racism-in-modern-turkey
Time ISIS was dealt with, allowed free rein from what I can see, though you’d wonder who the US would sell arms to then.
Well done Turkey, but I expect retaliation from them fruitcakes now in ISIS
IS is like a spoiled child that no one wants to chastise…. Till now.
It’s hard to figure out where Turkey is going in the future. The rise of radical and conservative Islam is a real threat to the modern democratic if imperfect state of Turkey.
It does appear that they were happy to let IS beat up the Turkish enemy the Kurds. But terror groups can’t help themselves but get involved in Turkey itself. So Turkey must respond. Turkey has a very unusual demographic make up. Young people are a very large proportion of the population compared with European countries. Very high unemployment rates and disenchanted youths make for plenty of trouble, that’s why some would want closer integration with Europe so as to gain employment here.
As for holidaying in Turkey I would certainly avoid it now as IS bring terror to Turkey and hitting the important tourism trade is an obvious target as they demonstrated in Tunisia.
Most people in this world just want peace and some prosperity to rear families and live in harmony with their neighbours, power and greed however means that someone wants to take that from ordinary people, however just like nazism it took a few years for the world to stand up to terror, this is more difficult to beat because of IS stateless nature and cells of terror groups. The damage that IS is doing to Islamic relations in the west is deliberate and effective. The only way to beat the IS is moderate Islam imposing its will and influence. However Islam is a divided church that may have to unite for its own preservation.
Isis will most likely be defeated militarily, but as long as the causation factor is not addressed, the conflict will just move somewhere else. Too many people just blame Islam, it’s an easy answer. The reality is that many young Muslims all over the world, see too many Muslims being killed, too many Muslim countries being interfered with by foreign, non-Muslim countries.
It looks like an attack on Islam and makes these young people easily influenced by radicals. If the ‘Christian World’ was to be interfered with in the same way, we would have the inquisition back and armies of crusaders.
We condemn terrorism when the innocent are slaughtered, and rightly so, but let me ask you all this, what is the difference between your family being killed by a suicide bomber or by an anonymous bomb that flattens your home?
You are still helpless, devastated and enraged, you do not recognise the the difference in motive, the politics behind ‘collateral damage’ is meaningless when your loved ones are killed.
@De Wit….. Your post makes it very clear that you are an apologist for terror. And,like your ilk, you’ll never accept responsibility for you own Islamic failures as an viable ideology. Always shifting the blame onto others.
See what Uzay Bulut, a Muslim writer has to say in contradiction to your playing the ‘Victim Card’.
—”Uzay Bulut, born and raised a Muslim, is a Turkish journalist based in Ankara.—”
—”If colonialism were the main problem, Muslims, too, still are, colonizers — and not particularly “humanitarian” ones, at that.
Islamic jihad and Islamic violence; the sanctioning of sex slavery; dehumanization of women; hatred and persecution of non-Muslims have been commonplace in the Islamic world ever since the inception of the religion. Deny everything and blame “the infidel—
—”Trying to whitewash the damage that the Islamic ideology has done to the Muslim world, while putting the blame of Islamic atrocities on the West, will never help Muslims face their own failures and come up with progressive ways to resolve them.—
–”Many teachings in the Islamic scriptures, as well as the biographies of the founder of the religion, set up the parameters where these abuses not only occur but remain protected on a gigantic scale. These are the teachings that have become the culture of the Muslim world.
–”Human rights activists and academics in the West are lying to Muslims about their culture, and bashing and threatening America, Europe or “Zionism” for the problems of Muslims; this can never lead to any positive developments in the Muslim world. It is the Islamic culture and religious ideology that are responsible for these problems.—”
—Here De Wit-read the whole article and you might learn something.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/6059/atrocities-muslim-world
Pj, I stopped reading your insane gibberish last summer, when your rabid defence of the murder of 500 Palestinian children was plastered all over every article you could find. Answer as you like, I will not read that either, you are nothing but a fox news nut-job.
@De Wit! 2 million people butchered in South Sudan since 1958 by North Sudanese Muslim warlords. What % of these were babies?
How many kids did Hamas suffocate building their terror tunnels?
How many women and kids did Hamas use as shields?
How many,etc.etc.etc.
Didn’t read that one either pj, all of your comments are pretty much the same whataboutery claptrap, but carry on, I’ll not read any of them.
Why to I get the feeling that places like Turkey and Saudi Arabia are using ISIS as a excuse to generally clean house politically?
You know whats shitty
Your bum?
Bah most of my comment was cut off! Was saying that a lot of the poor children being brainwashed by these loonies will probably be fighting for the same cause in 10 years after seemlessly transitioning from unfortunate victim to evil terrorists and we will applaud their death just as we understandably applaud the death of current ISIS fighters. Gonna be hard to break the cycle. I hope we can somehow.
Come on humanity…you can do it!
Good for Turkey……but they have got to explain how thousands of foreign jihadists ended up in Syria via Turkey. They turned blind on them previously thinking they would beat Assad on their behalf & now found themselves fighting with them! Double standard!
bet the Americans are kicking themselves for getting rid of sadam hussein as bad as he was he had all the extremists under control
Finally the Turkish govt. gets tough on the IS maggots after years of collusion. Must have finally dawned on them that these nutters won’t stop until they’ve taken over the entire Muslim world.
have your say