Welfare office staff face death threats

Death threats, knife attacks, physical assaults, verbal abuse, and attacks on security staff and members of the public are just some of the dangers Social Protection staff as well as dole claimants are facing in welfare offices.

In one incident, an employee in the Carrick-on-Shannon offices in Leitrim was sent a bullet in the post. In another, a member of the public had their neck slashed at a welfare office in Tallaght. Separately, a security guard was assaulted at the Kings Inn welfare offices in Dublin.

The Irish Examiner has obtained details of attacks and threats, mainly on staff, in the last two years at welfare offices.