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Section 53(b) IPA states that a beneficiary of international protection “shall be entitled… to receive, upon and subject to the same conditions applicable to Irish citizens, the same medical care and the same social welfare benefits as those to which Irish citizens are entitled.”
As such, there are a broad range of social welfare entitlements to which a beneficiary of international protection may avail, including: access to jobseeker’s allowance, for those who are unemployed but actively seeking work; access to disability allowance for those unable to provide for themselves due to disability or illness; access to the one-parent family payment for single parents, and access to child benefit for parents/guardians. Application for various grants is carried out at the individual’s local office of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
International protection applicants living in Direct Provision who are recognised as refugees or granted alternative status, are not entitled to full social welfare payments while they remain in Direct Provision. Taking into consideration the difficulties they encounter accessing the housing market, being entitled to full payment would enable them to better plan for transition to other accommodation.[1] As of 28 November 2019, there were 817 persons with some form of protection status residing in Direct Provision.[2]
[1]Citizens Information Board, Submissions to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice and Equality for the Review of Direct Provision and the International Protection Application Process, May 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/2VP3rhe.
[2] Minister of State at the Department of Justice and Equality, David Stanton, Reply to Parliamentary Question No 278, 3 December 2019, available at: https://bit.ly/3bTO7pi. ECRE, AIDA, ‘Housing out of reach? The reception of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe’, available at: https://bit.ly/2Bljo75.