All social welfare local offices will be closed to the public tomorrow as a result of industrial action by members of the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU).
However, smaller branch offices - which are operated by private individuals under contract to the Department - will deal with welfare recipients as normal. A full list of local and branch offices is available at the Deaptment's website (see link below).
There will be also disruption to telephone and walk-in services at all of the Department’s headquarter offices in Dublin, Cork, Dundalk, Waterford and Letterkenny.
The Department of Social and Family Affairs said today that every effort will be made to ensure payments are not affected by the industrial action.
The vast majority of recipients receive their weekly payment by way of electronic fund transfer into a bank or financial institution, or through electronic payment or book at their post office.
A total of more than 1.3 million weekly payments are made to social welfare recipient across all schemes, including jobseekers, one parent family payments, widows and pensioners.
The Department said the loss of a full day’s processing time may lead to short-term knock on effects on processing and the putting into payment of claims.
Officials say they will continue to monitor the situation and inform the public of the likely impact, if any, on services in the coming days.
“We very much regret any disruption of services to members of the public caused by this industrial action,” a Department spokesperson said. “Every effort is being made to limit the effect of the disruption for customers.”
All welfare offices will re-open as normal on the Friday morning. People seeking information about services are being advised to visit the Department’s website which has detailed information on a range of schemes, as well applications forms available to download.
