A pot of gold at the end of the unemployed rainbow
Citizens Information in Ireland is similar to the Citizens Advice Bureau in the UK. We advise people on their rights and entitlements in areas such as social security, health, consumer issues and finance. We operate a website, a phoneline and a network of drop-in centres.In the last 18 months unemployment in Ireland has risen sharply and our phoneline and centres have become extremely busy with queries on redundancy and social security. Our website, http://www.losingyourjob.ie aims to answer many of these queries by providing integrated information on how to access public services. It is aimed at people who are newly unemployed or who are working on reduced hours or pay.
Available since March 2009, losingyourjob.ie was produced in a six-week period using open source technology. The website covers cross-sectoral information areas such as claiming social security benefits, requesting a tax refund, getting help with rent or mortgage payments, going back to education, looking for a new job and starting a business. It also provides information for migrant workers returning to EU or non-EU countries and for Irish citizens looking to relocate inside and outside the European Union.
Losingyourjob.ie is a “microsite” and is based on content from the Citizens Information Board’s eGovernment portal, citizensinformation.ie. Like Kent TV, we are very pleased that losingyourjob.ie has been shortlisted for a European eGovernment award.
- A special thank you to Graham Long, Citizens Information. If you would like more information on the project, please contact:
graham.long@ciboard.ie
Picture: A shirt with a label reading 'unemployed' instead of a name tag, with thanks to inoneear for publishing on Flickr under a Creative Commons license some rights reserved.
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