Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 October 2022
14. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Social Protection if additional staff have been recruited or seconded to community welfare sections in INTREO offices to deal with the additional applications for supplementary welfare allowances; and if not, if she plans to bring in additional staff to deal with the extra workload. [50731/22]
View answerAs I outlined in my earlier reply, I and my Department are committed to the provision of in-person Community Welfare Services around the country. This is clear from the fact that staffing levels have been maintained in the Community Welfare Service nationwide in recent years, even as demands on the service decreased due to the transfer of most rent allowances to the local authorities and the general improvement in economic conditions. This reflects my commitment to continue to support the delivery of in-person services to citizens. There are currently over 400 staff working in the Community Welfare Service throughout the country.
My Department has also introduced a number of innovations this year with the aim of increasing service capacity and modernising and improving the Community Welfare Service. The measures introduced are intended to ensure a permanent full-time CWO presence in over 50 of our local offices, expand the range of service access options for clients, and reduce the administrative workload on CWOS, so freeing up front line staff to make them available to deal personally with clients.
These changes together with the maintenance of staffing levels has led to the CWS being in a stronger position to respond to increases in the demand for the service than might otherwise have been the case.
This is important given that there has been a significant increase, of about 60%, this year in the level of applications received for Additional Needs Payments. While people will always question process and organisation change the fact that the service has delivered over 60% more payments this year than last and that 75% of claims received via the new national freephone line are determined without the need for a client to ever visit a physical office bear testimony to the effectiveness of the changes.
In addition to improving the accessibility and capacity of the service we are also concerned to ensure that it is adequately staffed. Accordingly, I am pleased to say that as part of the estimates process the Department secured approval for an additional 289 staff in 2023. It is intended that some of these staff will be allocated to help further improve CWS capacity. I expect recruitment for these posts to begin shortly.
It is timely to acknowledge the huge efforts of our network of Community Welfare Officers throughout the country to support people at what is a very difficult time and I know too that they have been assisting following the tragedy in Creeslough last Friday.
I want to be absolutely clear that the service continues to provide local access to local CWOs in local areas across the country and that there are no plans to change this.
