Report highlights the need for CIS support
HOUSING RELATED QUERIES TO CIS ROSE SIGNIFICANTLY LAST YEAR SAYS REPORT
ONE in six adults living in the country contacted one of the country’s 42 Citizens Information Services (CIS) last year, including services in Sligo and Tubbercurry, according to a new report which was launched this week.
A total of 607,913 people contacted CIS in 2016 with a total of 1.01 million queries overall, an increase of 2% on the previous year states the report, the Making an Impact The Public Value of Citizens Information Services.
Remarkably, the vast majority of callers to the services were supported by CIS staff face to face.
Four out of five people (80%) contacted their local CIS in person, nearly 20% by telephone with just 1% contacting the service by email.
This is in contrast to the move by many other services to use internet and automated responses to answer people’s queries, [your service] said.
Over 46% of all queries (462,738) were in relation to social welfare.
Over one in six of these 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.
The number of housing related queries rose signficantly in 2016, increasing by over 27%.
Citizens Information Services dealt with over 95,000 queries related to housing issues, or an average of 260 housing queries every day of the year.
Orla Barry Manager of the Co Sligo Service said that Citizens Information Services were dealing with more complex queries.
“We are consistently dealing with more complex issues and more difficult situations for families and individuals,” Ms Barry said.
“One of the great advantages of the CISs is that we are located where people are living, like here in Sligo and Tubbercurry.
“One of the valuable pieces of evidence that this report shows us is that people who visit CISs prefer to talk to other people about their difficulties and concerns,” she continued. “Our community connection as a local drop-in service is our greatest strength.”