18/12/2012 00:00
TW
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Palma.—A total of 25'423 unemployed people registered at Balearic job centres are having to manage on just over 426 euros a month.
The jobless in this category have already come to the end of their entitlement to unemployment benefit and are claiming emergency aid.
There is an increasing amount of paperwork which needs to be presented at the State employment offices and the job centres in the Balearic Islands to confirm eligibility for Emergency Aid.

Seasonal work force
Although in November this year there were 96'377 people officially registered as unemployed, it has to be taken into account that 52'053 of this number are seasonal workers who each year are entitled to benefit according to the number of months they have worked over the course of 12 months.

The total figure also includes 1'741 people who are currently undergoing training for a place in the job market but who in reality aren't working or earning.

The total number of people who are entitled to some kind of benefit whilst out of work is just 60'003 when the amount of applications for aid of some kind in fact amounts to 154'889.

The General Secretary for the USO Union in the Balearics, David Diez calculates that a total of 94'866 people who are looking for work don't receive any type of unemployment benefit at all; that is to say that 38.75 percent of people out of work in the Islands receive no economic aid of any kind.

Both the General Workers Union (UGT) and the Workers Commission (CCOO) have warned that despite a 1 percent downturn in the year-on-year unemployment figures, it is going to be a very hard winter for many in the Balearics.

Thousands won't get paid until after Christmas
Unions said yesterday that thousands of people who are out of a job won't receive any of the unemployment benefit or emergency aid to which they are entitled until after Christmas.

UGT and CCOO representatives claim that the reason is an administrative one in that the regional job centres (SOIB) are not sufficiently staffed to handle the volume of claims, especially those of seasonal workers who won't receive payment until 10th January, and in some cases not until 10th February.