My Department introduced a new personal social services card in 1992. This card is a plastic card with an encoded magnetic stripe. Over 400,000 people have already received their personal social services cards. The social services card replaces the registration cards issued to people entering the social welfare system. Those cards have been in use for a great many years. The card will also in time replace the "signing card" currently in use at local offices of my Department. The new social services card is part of my strategy of modernising the administration of social welfare services and providing better services for customers.
The social services card is designed to full banking standards and is being used to provide speedier access to unemployment payments at post offices where the counter services have been modernised.
It is also sometimes used by people cashing sickness benefit cheques in banks and shops. Such incidental uses are an important indication of the need for a secure and durable card.
The person's RSI number, date of birth and sex are magnetically encoded on the card. Only the person's name and RSI number are actually visible on the front of the card. The card will facilitate easier and quicker access, not alone to social welfare services but also to Revenue services.
The Data Protection Act gives the individual the right to be supplied with details of any personal information on the social services card.