merrion street

43 Intreo Centres providing a one-stop shop for jobseekers where they can get their Department of Social Protection income supports and employment supports in the one place for the first time will be open by the end of January 2014. The new Intreo service offers practical, tailored employment services and supports for jobseekers.

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton said:

There are a number of new features in the Intreo service which were not a part of the old social welfare local office model. These include client profiling and early group engagement, regular one-to-one meetings with case officers which focus on employment supports and monitoring of the client's progress. The integrated decision-making process is leading to quicker decisions on applications for weekly payments and the recently launched Benefit of Work Ready Reckoner highlights the difference for jobseekers between potential income from work and the welfare payments they currently receive.

In the first eleven months of 2013, 122,300 people had attended group engagements, 148,500 people had attended initial one-to-one interviews and all jobseekers will have been profiled by the end of 2013.

Minister Burton continued:

Intreo Centres are not just for jobseekers, they are also for employers. We provide a range of supports for employers, such as JobsPlus, the wage subsidy scheme where the State pays approximately €1 in €4 of the typical cost of hiring someone who has been on the Live Register for 12 months or more. I would urge employers as well as jobseekers to see what their local Intreo office has to offer them.