The Role of the C.W.O.

confuseddotcom

So what exactly is the job of the C.W.O or Community Welfare Officer? To tide you over until your money comes through would be my understanding of it at a quick glimpse. But, what is the process involved? I assume they have to check if your claim has been approved by D.S.P. before arranging money for you, but, the reason for the initial delay is because D.S.P. hasn't got around to sorting out and processing your Claim yet, so I'm just wondering how is this resolved.

The idea of having this emergency feature in place I would have thought, - would be until your Claim goes through, but in the case of your Claim not having gone through yet, obviously they aren't going to know whether or not you will be awarded Jobseeker's or whichever Payment you have claimed for, so what happens next? Do they just refuse ya and send you on your merry way still waiting for money or what..... If this is what happens, I don't see the point/purpose of this Position.

jjbrien

If you have a claim pending with social welfare the community welfare officer will pay you the basic rate straight away whist your claim in pending with welfare. They are also responsible for payment of Rent Allowance or Mortgage Interest Supplement

ABajaninCork

confuseddotcom wrote: »

So what exactly is the job of the C.W.O or Community Welfare Officer? To tide you over until your money comes through would be my understanding of it at a quick glimpse. But, what is the process involved? I assume they have to check if your claim has been approved by D.S.P. before arranging money for you, but, the reason for the initial delay is because D.S.P. hasn't got around to sorting out and processing your Claim yet, so I'm just wondering how is this resolved.

The idea of having this emergency feature in place I would have thought, - would be until your Claim goes through, but in the case of your Claim not having gone through yet, obviously they aren't going to know whether or not you will be awarded Jobseeker's or whichever Payment you have claimed for, so what happens next? Do they just refuse ya and send you on your merry way still waiting for money or what..... If this is what happens, I don't see the point/purpose of this Position.

Who told you that? CWO's (now known as Dept of Social Protection Representatives), can and do check the status of any prospective JSA/JSB claim! It's a simple matter of tapping in your PPSN on their computer and hey presto! They can tell what sort of claim went in, and when...

They continue to deal with Rent Allowance and MIS though, and can help with miscellaneous payments like money towards baby items and such like.

Balagan

Sets out details of Supplementary Welfare Allowance and how it is processed
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/supplementary_welfare_schemes/supplementary_welfare_allow.html

confuseddotcom

Thanks for that Link Balagan! Mother of Divine! I've to go getting a whole load of crap together again to apply for another Payment in the interim till main Payment comes through! That seems crazy! And then I'll probably have a few weeks wait again then until I officially go back on my main Jobseeker's Payment!!

ABajaninCork

confuseddotcom wrote: »

Thanks for that Link Balagan! Mother of Divine! I've to go getting a whole load of crap together again to apply for another Payment in the interim till main Payment comes through! That seems crazy! And then I'll probably have a few weeks wait again then until I officially go back on my main Jobseeker's Payment!!

Hmmm. Putting in for an interim payment whilst your claim is dealt with? You get something to live on while you wait.

Or waiting weeks if not months (if you're really unlucky) for the claim to come through and sitting there with no money???

I know which I'd do.

danjo-xx

I can sympathise a bit with the OP, you go to social and give all this info and then you have to trot off to CWO and do it all again surely this could be more streamlined to make it more customer friendly.

Why cant the basic means data given to welfare by the customer not be entered directly into a 'holding' file on computer which can then be accessed by the CWO when you call to him :rolleyes:

confuseddotcom

I guess I see what they are saying though shouldn't be complaining at all, would be a lot worse if we didn't have the service to get any money at all! :eek: But yeah a File of some sort would be handy, but I'm sure they have more-than-enough work to cope with in those offices so wouldn't like to add anymore to what must be a excessively-busy day already for them. It must be a really stressful job to work for D.S.P.

What did make me a bit cross really though was that I was covering for someone for a few weeks before Christmas but they didn't really know when exactly I'd finish up as they didn't have a bull's clue what was happening with the other staff-member or even if they would return to work. Had they known/confirmed my finishing-date I could have gotten straight back onto my official Social Welfare Payment again through the "fast-track" method where ya get put straight back onto Social Welfare after a specific few weeks of work. Ah shure am muddling through somehow! No choice in the matter! It could be a long long wait though!! :eek: It's tough enough but will cope! Think am going to this Department of Social Protection Representative person tomorrow and see what they have to say. I wonder how quick can they turn things around or how does it work..... If I am approved the money while I'm waiting, will it be given to be tomorrow, the next day, the next week or when......

It was a Scheme-thingy that I was on for the few weeks for the other person, but like, another way around it, would be to change the name of the Payment so that there'll be no waiting delay, but then there's backlogs, and paper-work, and red-tape to contend with so that mightn't work at all either, actually that could cause complete confusion and chaos too though! Or at least categorize all the payments or label them some way, where repetitive Form-filling is't necessary and so cuts out the paper-work for them too. For the Community Employment Schemes and JobBridge and W.P.P. if that's still running, for those ones mostly, so that it would be a straight direct return to your S.W. Payment as ya were before ya went working. And then if there's any subsequent or resulting change in your circumstances that would be when you'd fill up a Form, but a straight clean direct transfer back to your S.W. Payment when finished up in the job would mean no delay then.

Cushie Butterfield

Seemingly the new public services id cards will solve these sort of issues, cutting out all the red tape when applying for different payments.