ALMOST half of all queries to the Limerick Citizen’s Information Service were about social welfare entitlements, according to a new report.
One in six of the calls related to payments for families and children, including family income supplement, one-parent family allowance, child benefit or back to school clothing or footwear for example.
And the vast majority contacted the service personally rather than by email, the report shows.
607,913 people nationally contacted CISs in 2016 with a total of 1.01 queries overall, an increase of 2 per cent on the previous year, according to figures unveiled by the service this week.
The majority of callers to the services were supported by CIS staff face to face. Four out of five people (80 per cent) contacted their local CIS in person, nearly 20 per cent by telephone with just 1per cent contacting the service by email.
“This in contrast to the move by many other services to use internet and automated responses to answer people’s queries” said Marion Browne, manager of the Limerick service.
The statistics are contained in ‘Making An Impact – The Public Value of Citizens Information Services’.
Ms Browne said that Citizens Information Services were dealing with complex queries.
“We are consistently dealing with more complex issues and more difficult situations for families and individuals,” she said.
“One of the great advantages of the CISs is that we are located where people are living, like here in Limerick city and County .”
“One of the valuable pieces of evidence that this report shows us that people who visit CISs prefer to talk to other people about their difficulties and concerns,” she continued. “Our community connection as a drop-in service is our greatest asset and strength.”
There were more than 82,000 health queries with medical cards representing two-thirds of them.
Other recurring trends saw migrants continued reliance on face to face information services; 22 per cent of callers whose country of origin was recorded, came from other EU or non-EU countries.
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