The Social Welfare
office in Letterkenny has been forced to close its
doors to the public today as it struggles to cope
with the number of new people signing on.
In an unprecedented move that reflects the economic
downturn, the office has shut today in a bid to
clear the backlog.
"Our usual opening hours are 9.30am to 4pm but
because of the unprecedented backlog of jobseekers'
claims, we decided we had to close today to try and
clear some of that backlog," a spokesperson told
Highland Radio.
The Letterkenny office has been handling an average
of around 100 claims per week over the summer
months. It now has a backlog of around 700 claims
awaiting authorisation. "Obviously, these are people
that are waiting on payment so we have had to take
this drastic measure of closing the office to try
and clear some of these payments," added the
spokesperson. |
