{"id":1997,"date":"2018-11-02T15:26:13","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T14:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/?post_type=article&p=1997"},"modified":"2018-11-07T08:15:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T07:15:22","slug":"mit-tahwid-fid-dipartimenti-tal-gvern-qed-ibati-c-cittadin","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/article\/mit-tahwid-fid-dipartimenti-tal-gvern-qed-ibati-c-cittadin\/","title":{"rendered":"The citizen is suffering the consequences of chaos at Government Departments"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A\u00a0heartbreaking\u00a0social case that should not have been treated in such a humiliating way in an economy that is supposedly doing well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Voice of the Workers<\/i>\u00a0came across a post on Facebook posted by a person who is desperate because instead of help and comfort, she was faced with obstacles and frustration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The case is about a woman who was\u00a0thrown out of the apartment she was living with for personal reasons that were out of her control. She was only\u00a0given\u00a0two months to find alternative accommodation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To\u00a0try to address the situation she had ended up in, the woman contacted the Department of Social Security and the Housing authority. This was because she cannot afford the high prices of rental properties on offer today.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The woman is a single mother of two\u00a0young\u00a0children.\u00a0She was advised to find a flatmate until alternative accommodation could be found for her. This is what she did and, in fact, she moved into an apartment with\u00a0her children\u00a0and a pensioner who was a friend of the family.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After she had done exactly as she had been advised by the\u00a0employees of the Department of Social Security and Housing and after she had changed her address on her Identity Card, this woman got the shock of her life. She received a letter that informed her that she was no longer entitled to benefits. She immediately called the 153 number and the person who answered explained that the reason she had had her benefits terminated was that her flatmate was a man not a woman.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You can imagine this woman\u2019s surprise!\u00a0She could not believe\u00a0that\u00a0in 2018 this country has\u00a0remained\u00a0so backward that it was possible to receive a ridiculous reply like that! You would never guess what they told her! They told her that since her flatmate is a man, he can take care of her! The woman asks: what right has\u00a0she\u00a0and her children to the pension of a man who she is not related to? This was the alternative to ending up on the street without a roof over her head.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ivan\u00a0Bartolo, the opposition speaker on Social Accommodation, the Fight\u00a0Against\u00a0Poverty, Solitude and Social Exclusion,\u00a0reacted to this story and\u00a0said to the\u00a0Voice of the Workers<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>that \u201chis is a real story, these stories have almost become common in our society today. We never thought we would come to this. The lack of assistance for social housing is made evident by such a story. Poverty can be touched with your hands and this is only one of a series of stories, particularly among those people with small kids. This is an ineffective administration that is\u00a0more\u00a0likely to create trouble for you than offer you solutions.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  A\u00a0heartbreaking\u00a0social case that should not have been treated in such a humiliating way in an economy that is supposedly doing well.\u00a0 Voice of the Workers\u00a0came across a post on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1992,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":""},"issuem_issue":[84],"issuem_issue_categories":[9],"issuem_issue_tags":[],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.8.8","language":"en","enabled_languages":["mt","en"],"languages":{"mt":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1997"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2013,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/1997\/revisions\/2013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue?post=1997"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_categories","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_categories?post=1997"},{"taxonomy":"issuem_issue_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/weekly.uhm.org.mt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issuem_issue_tags?post=1997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}