Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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89. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the measures she has taken to address the unacceptable waiting lists for carer's allowance applicants; the timescale to process these applications; the number of applications received for each of the past three years; the number that were granted, refused and under appeal; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24827/13]

Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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95. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his views on whether it is fair and reasonable for carer's allowance applicants to have to wait up to 12 months to have their claims processed; her views on whether it is fair and reasonable for applicants who have given up their job to care for someone on a full time basis to have to wait more than 12 month to enter payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24954/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 89 and 95 together.

The Department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible. The waiting lists and processing times for carer’s allowance were unacceptable in 2012 but significant improvements have been made in the past year by my Department. The backlog of carer’s allowance applications has been eliminated and processing times have improved greatly, with new applications now being actioned on receipt and claims received in the last 6 months are now decided within 10 weeks.

The total number carer’s allowance applications which were awaiting decision at mid-June 2012 were approximately 11,600. At present, the number is approximately 3,300 cases. Most of these applications are already processed and awaiting further information from customers or have had decisions and are part of the review/appeals process.

In relation to people who leave the workforce to care for a person who is in need of full-time care and attention, carer’s benefit may be a more suitable scheme. Complementing the carer’s benefit scheme is carer’s leave which allows a person to leave their employment temporarily for up to 104 weeks to provide full-time care for people in need of full-time care and attention. The leave is unpaid but people who take carer’s leave have their jobs kept open for the duration of the leave. The current average processing time for a carer’s benefit claims is 9 weeks.

The Table below provides details of the number of carer’s allowance applications received for each of the past three years, and the number that were decided, granted, refused and withdrawn.

I am informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that there were 3,025 carer’s allowance appeals registered in that office in 2010, 2,199 carer’s allowance appeals registered in 2011 and in 2012 the number registered was 2,676.