Thank you for the question.
I'd like to first of all address statistics, and then I'll deal with why people withdraw.
We see in the year 2011 that about 4,500 people initiated claims. About 800 were withdrawn, about 250 were abandoned, 160 were accepted, and 738 were refused. Half of the claims initiated were still pending.
When you look at the numbers, the percentage of withdrawn claims over the number of claims pending is not very high. It's a matter of how you look at the statistics. There is no refusal rate of 98%. There is no abandonment rate of 98%, and there is no withdrawal rate of 98%.
We see that in one in five cases of people who actually appear before board members, their cases are approved.
Now, why do people withdraw? This is a little bit of a complex situation, and there are certain factors that I think warrant looking at.
First of all, as Gina mentioned, it's very difficult for people who have low or little education to navigate a complex legal system. Until recently, there has been very little community support to assist these refugees. There has been a huge problem with a handful of unscrupulous lawyers and consultants who have actually done an injustice to this community. Numerous complaints have been filed at the law society against these lawyers. I myself am cleaning up dozens of messes from what happened. People lose hope. The lawyers don't show up. They don't answer their phones, and sometimes people just end up withdrawing their claims.
I'd like to make another point. If you come here to so-called scam the welfare system, you don't withdraw your claim. You stay here, and you take every last penny from welfare. The fact that people withdraw means that they're not in it for the money.