Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)

My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. Every effort is made to ensure that customers receive all their entitlements as soon as possible following application.

Entitlement to disability allowance is contingent on the applicant satisfying both medical and means conditions. To satisfy the medical condition customers submit a medical certificate from their general practitioner. A medical assessor of my Department examines the medical evidence submitted and, if necessary, asks the person to attend for a medical examination to establish if the medical conditions for the scheme are met. The weekly rate of disability allowance depends on the amount of weekly means the person has. Means are assessed on the basis of income which the person or the person's spouse may reasonably expect to receive in the year following the date of the claim. An officer of my Department gathers all the necessary evidence, including documentation, to make an assessment of a person's means. In certain circumstances a home visit may be necessary before the assessment can be completed.

Inevitably, a period of weeks elapses while these investigations take place. This results in arrears accruing to the person. However, once a decision is made on the person's entitlement, the weekly rate is put into payment to ensure that the person receives ongoing payments as soon as they are due. Arrears accruing for the period from date of entitlement to date of first payment are then computed and issued as soon as is practicable. Many claimants are in receipt of supplementary welfare allowance or other primary social welfare payments during this period. The amount of such overlapping payments must be established and deducted when computing the net arrears due. Having regard to the time it takes to decide on applications for disability allowance in the first instance and subsequently to calculate and issue the appropriate amounts of arrears due, it is inevitable that a number of weeks will elapse before these matters are finalised in any case.

One of my Department's priorities is to minimise the time lags involved in processing new claims and any associated arrears due. Targets are set for claim processing, including calculation and payment of arrears, but pressures can arise at certain times due to claim volumes, as a result of which these targets are sometimes not met. My Department makes every effort to ensure, however, that payments are made as quickly and expeditiously as possible.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

There has been a significant increase in the number of disability allowance applications received by my Department in the first six months of 2005. A total of 10,500 applications have been received, compared with 8,700 in the first six months of 2004. In this context, priority has, in the first instance, been given to processing entitlements to the allowance. Consequently some delays have been recently experienced in the processing of arrears of disability allowance. Staff resources, which have become available as a result of the successful completion of another project in the disability allowance area, are being dedicated to the processing of arrears to reduce the number of cases awaiting decision. The situation will continue to be closely monitored to ensure that service improvements are effected.

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