The community welfare service is being pushed to breaking point because authorities are not increasing staffing levels to cope with a dramatic rise in welfare claims, union officials claimed today.
The number of requests for assistance from the community welfare service for basic welfare payments has jumped by up to 85 per cent over the past two years, official figures show.
Yet the number of staff has remained unchanged over this period due to a recruitment embargo across the health service, according to community welfare officers.
In addition, officers say they are working through lunch breaks and giving unpaid overtime to try to cope with heavy workloads.
While Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin recently announced plans to provide an extra 200 posts in social welfare offices, no additional community welfare officers - who are employed by the Health Service Executive - will be appointed.
Speaking at a press conference today, Kevin Figgis, Siptu's health professionals' branch organiser, said hundreds of additional community welfare officers were needed to meet the rising level of demand.
"The length of queues, the sheer numbers seeking help is pushing the service to breaking point," he said.
"The situation is already deteriorating. With commentators predicting that up to 500,000 will be on the live register, that suggest the community welfare service will collapse because there are not sufficient staff to meet the demands being placed on it."
There are around 750 community welfare officers and 300 supervisors who are employed by the Health Service Executive (HSE) in around 1,000 locations across the State.
One community welfare officer based in north Kildare, Michael O'Connor, said he wondered how much longer the system and individual officers on the ground could cope.
"I used to deal with around 65 cases per week. These days, I'm dealing with around 200. These are people who cases haven't been processed in time by the Department, so we have to step in," he said.
"We're the lifeboat which rescues people... we've taken as many as we can on board and now it's beginning to sink."
Minister Hanafin has said that the appointment of around 200 extra staff in social welfare offices around the State would help to take much of the pressure off the community welfare service.
However, Mr Figgis said these staff have not yet been appointed and that the HSE's recruitment embargo meant there was little chance of the pressure being lifted off community welfare officers.
"The embargo is a crude instrument that leaves our members attempting to perform the impossible for increasingly desperate clients," he said.
"In some regions cutbacks on budgets, such as a 14.5 per cent reduction in mileage in Kerry, further reduces our members mobility and access to clients."
Fine Gael's spokeswoman on social and family affairs Olwyn Enright said Ms Hanafin had to accept responsibility for failing to put extra staff in social welfare offices on time.
"Minister Hanafin has been placing all the pressure on community welfare officers to bridge the gap between the increased numbers signing on and the insufficient staff at social welfare offices. This is just not possible
and the system is now at breaking point, with some staff claiming it to be beyond that," she said.
Ms Enright said extra staff are "essential" to tackle the backlog in social welfare offices.
"The difficulties being experienced by the Community Welfare service are at crisis point and the HSE needs to immediately examine the potential to redeploy staff to ensure that people can get the service they need."