Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
My son was refused nursery place ..because I have a job
Furious mum ‘better off quitting work’
A SINGLE mum has said she feels like quitting her £700 a month job after her son was refused a nursery place because they are not deprived enough.
Emma Murray had her sights set on getting her threeyear-old into the pre-school his cousins attended.
She said: “It’s not the closest, but I have 14 nieces and nephews that have gone to Naiscoil [Cliftonville Road] and Bunscoil Bheann Mhadagain and some to Colaiste Feirste in West Belfast.”
But little Rua was refused a place and was also turned down on appeal. The 30-year- old added: “I have done nothing but cry my eyes out.
“It’s basically because I am not falling into social disadvantage criteria and they told me that.
“If I quit my job I’ll get everything else handed to me and my child would have got a place in nursery.
“They said in the tribunal he would have got a place if I didn’t work.” The New Lodge woman is employed as a parttime classroom assistant.
An Education Authority spokesman said when a nursery or school is oversubscribed it sets its own criteria.
But it has to give priority to children in their final preschool year if their parents get income support, employment support or jobseeker’s allowance or universal credit.
They added: “EA does not comment on individual cases.”
A spokesman for Naiscoil and Bunscoil Bheann Mhadagain said: “The school has no comment to make on individual cases and operates an open enrolment policy in line with DE guidelines.”