Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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Question 345: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if social welfare offices (details supplied) in County Tipperary have taken on extra staff to deal with the increase in workload; the number of applications received for unemployment assistance benefit in the local offices in 2007, 2008 and to date in 2009; the number of staff in each office each year to deal with the applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26094/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as expeditiously as possible. The Department has put a range of measures in place to deal with the extra workload arising from the increase in the Live Register. These include:

additional posts assigned;

use of temporary staff to fill vacancies pending the appointment of permanent staff;

extension of temporary staff contracts in certain offices;

increased overtime;

prioritisation of work;

the setting up of Local Office Support Units.

The number of posts allocated to Thurles Local Office since June 2007 is as follows:

Because of the increased number of claims for jobseeker payments, the Department undertook a review of staffing levels in local offices in May and June of last year. As a result, work is in progress to assign 2 permanent staff members to Thurles Local Office, and 1 temporary member of staff has been approved pending the assignment of permanent staff.

The offices in Roscrea and Nenagh are branch offices and operate under a contract for service to the Department. Branch office managers are responsible for recruiting their own staff. However, officials of the Department meet with the Branch Managers' Association on a periodic basis to discuss operational issues including staffing. At the most recent such meeting held on 3 March 2009, branch office managers were reminded that under the terms of their contract, they are required to ensure that staffing levels are adequate to allow for the efficient performance of the work of the office.

The branch office manager's annual performance assessment, which is undertaken by management from the parent local office, involves an evaluation of the staffing levels to ensure that service requirements are being met. Local office management were recently reminded of their obligations in this regard.

The number of staff in Roscrea Branch Office and Nenagh Branch Office since 2007 is as follows:

In addition, the Department is implementing a number of process improvement initiatives aimed at improving overall processing times for the jobseeker schemes.

Examples of process improvement initiatives introduced recently include:

A streamlined process for people who had a claim in the previous 2 years.

Application forms for the jobseeker schemes are now available on the Department's website. This means that anyone who wants to make a claim can print the form at home and bring it to the local office completed. This helps reduce queuing times.

More straight-forward procedures for providing evidence of identity and address have been introduced.

A more streamlined procedure for claimants moving to jobseekers allowance when their jobseekers benefit expires.

We have introduced an appointment system for taking claims in 16 offices and plan to extend this to other offices over the coming months.

The process for casual employees has been streamlined and the employee can now self certify on a weekly basis without recourse to the employer. A compensatory periodic control measure has been introduced for employers.

The Deputy will be aware that anyone suffering hardship can apply for supplementary welfare allowance. The supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA) is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. SWA provides a safety net against poverty in that it gives a statutory entitlement to a minimum weekly income, based on criteria set out in legislation. The majority of SWA claims are processed within a matter of days.

The following table shows the number of claims for jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit received in Thurles Local Office and in Nenagh and Roscrea Branch Offices between January 2007 and 14th June 2009.