The Department of Social Welfare provides its services throughout the country through its headquarter offices and through its network of social welfare local offices and social welfare inspector locations. In addition, 72 branch offices are operated on a contract basis for the Department by branch managers.
The branch offices currently deal with approximately 28 per cent of unemployment payments. Each branch office reports to a designated social welfare local office. The designated local office is responsible for the authorisation of claims presented at branch offices and is also responsible for making any changes in rates of payment in such claims. The majority of branch office claimants are paid through post offices and others are paid in cash at the branch offices. By contrast, however, all local offices and departmental offices' customers are now paid either at their local post office or by cheque or, in a small number of cases, by electronic fund transfer.
Branch managers are remunerated by reference to the number of unemployed claimants dealt with by their office. The direct cost of running the branch offices is in the region of £5 million per annum. Out of this, the branch managers must provide suitable accommodation and staffing for the work of their offices.
Since the end of the 1980s the Department of Social Welfare has been engaged in a programme of fundamental change in the way it delivers its services to the public. This programme has been underpinned by far-reaching agreements with staff unions and associations on establishing a regional management structure, with arrangements for the local delivery of a much broader range of services, more modern systems of payments and better systems of control. The agreements cleared the way for the significant changes required in the social welfare local offices in order to deliver on the major elements of this strategy. This switch from payments in cash to alternative payment methods. mainly through post offices, is a central feature of the new service.
The main fuctions of the branch offices at present are to take claims for unemployment assistance and unemployment benefit, to pay people in receipt of unemployment payments and sign them on a weekly basis. Branch managers are responsible for the safe custody of any public moneys received and paid on behalf of the Department. The changes which are taking place in the way in which the Department delivers its services have implications for the traditional role and type of activity carried out by branch offices. The processes associated with signing clients and calculating and making cash payments to the unemployed will change significantly. The computerisation of the calculation process, the removal of cash payments from the offices and the transfer of these payments to the customer's local post office will further reduce the work of the offices as will the replacement of weekly with monthly signing.
In view of the above, it is now the case that the branch office operation must be reviewed in order to see how best the benefits flowing from the changes in service delivery can be extended to existing social welfare customers and the public generally who are currently catered for by the branch offices or living in their catchment areas. This review has been under way in my Department for several years now and predates my occupation of this office. I might add that, in the normal course, when a branch manager retires or when his or her contract expires, the Department reviews the situation in the relevant area. In doing so, various factors are taken into account and a decision is made on the appropriate level of service, having regard to the other developments that are taking place. On this basis, a number of branch offices have been closed in recent years, including the period when Deputy Woods was Minister.
