Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 July 2022
115. Deputy Matt Carthy asked the Minister for Social Protection the additional resources that have been provided to community welfare officers to assist those facing financial burden due to the cost-of-living crisis. [34781/22]
View answerThe delivery of crucial community welfare services to meet the challenges and the needs of citizens across the country remains a priority for me and my Department. It is important that the Community Welfare Service (CWS) remains an accessible, flexible, and responsive service to meet the varied needs of vulnerable people, particularly in a time of crisis or emergency.
My Department has maintained staffing levels in the CWS nationwide in recent years during times when demands decreased, reflective of the commitment that I have given to continue to support the delivery of locally based services to customers. The Department has introduced innovations this year which have increased efficiency in processing applications for SWA payments. These innovations and the maintenance of staffing levels have led to the CWS being in a stronger position to respond to increases in the demand for the service as they occur. This was borne out when there was a surge of claims received arising from significant numbers of displaced people arriving from Ukraine. It is, therefore, anticipated that there is sufficient capacity within the CWS to manage the increased level of claims arising from the promotion of the Additional Needs Payment during the recent advertising campaign.
Having said that, it’s important to note that claims activity within the CWS is closely monitored at all times and resources are deployed as necessary. There is now a national organisational structure in place to oversee the operation of the service across the entire country.
Among the innovations that have been introduced to help citizens and to support our Community Welfare Officers (CWOs) where possible, the preparatory work on applications - for example, the gathering of supporting documentation that is necessary to assess and finalise a claim, is carried out largely by a back-office team. The assessment and decision on claims and any further interactions or engagements with other agencies remains the role of locally based CWOs. This initiative releases CWOs to focus on delivery of services and from the requirement to undertake administrative tasks and allows for increased capacity for them to meet with customers as required and/or to process claims.
Please note however that the assessment and decision on claims and any further customer interactions is then carried out by locally based CWOs as it always has been. The delivery of a locally based CWS remains a cornerstone of the service.
This method of processing applications has been found to be very effective in improving service to customers, especially at times of particular pressure, i.e., during periods of staff absence due to the pandemic or a claim intake surge in a particular local area. It allows for flexible processing arrangements, and it has ensured that a swift response is available to customers resulting in a significant decrease in the time waiting for a claim to be paid regardless of the prevailing circumstances in place in any area of the country.
I trust this clarifies the matter.
