Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 106 to 109, inclusive, 113, 121, 123, 128, 134, 135, 153, 315 and 336 together.

The average processing times for claims processed in December was two weeks for jobseeker's benefit and five weeks for jobseeker's allowance. That is the average nationally but there are fluctuations between offices. Processing times can vary from office to office for a number of reasons, including the extent of the increased number of claims, the number of staff vacancies, the duration of such vacancies and the turnover of staff in the office, which impacts on the overall level of experience in the office. I am making a table available, Table 1, showing the processing times in weeks at every local office for claims decided in December, the latest month for which such figures are available.

The conditions of entitlement vary between the two jobseeker schemes and involve, among other things, the need to establish the person's social insurance record and to assess their means where appropriate. I am also making available a table (Table 2) showing the number of claims awaiting a decision as at 24 January 2009.

Staff in social welfare offices have been working extremely hard to process the increasing volume of claims for jobseeker's payments as quickly as possible. Productivity has increased significantly. Nearly 155,000 claims were processed in local offices in the last quarter of 2008, including the one parent family payment. This compares with less than 89,000 in the last quarter of 2007, representing an increase of 74%.

I accept that processing times in some areas are still too long and I would like to assure Deputies that we are doing our best to reduce them. I know that becoming unemployed is a very difficult time in a person's life and that he or she needs to get access to financial and other supports as quickly as possible.

As I outlined in the answer to the first priority question, the Department has taken a number of steps to improve processing times for jobseeker's payments. An additional 31 staff were assigned to 15 local offices following a review of the number of staffing levels in local offices in May and June last year.

Following a further review late last year, it was decided to put an extra 115 staff in place. Some 57 of these have already taken up work, while start dates have been agreed for a further 19 staff over the next two to three weeks. It is expected that all of the posts will be filled by late February. Appropriate training will be given to new staff on their assignment to the local offices.

Four central decisions units are also being set up in Dublin city centre, Sligo, Finglas and Carrick-on-Shannon, each of which will have ten staff.

In addition to this, a further 16 social welfare inspectors are being assigned to various locations throughout the country to do means and other work associated with processing claims for jobseeker's payments. This brings to 202 the number of additional staff being assigned to local offices and claim processing roles.

At the same time, the procedures and processes associated with claims for jobseeker payments are being reviewed and a number of process improvement initiatives are being implemented. For example, the Dundalk initiative involves applicants for jobseeker's payments having their claims taken and decided upon during an appointment with a deciding officer. Some 40% of jobseeker's applications are now being decided upon this way in the Dundalk office. Having been well received by customers, this initiative will be extended to other offices on a phased basis.

The Department's management services unit has responsibility for carrying out staffing assessments for all business areas in the Department, including local offices. The administrative productivity training method of work measurement is used to identify, measure and quantify workloads and to determine staffing requirements for all clerical-administrative work. To determine the number of additional staff required to deal with the increasing live register, exercises based on the template were carried out. These have informed the allocation of existing staff resources to the local offices.

We will continue to keep staffing under review to ensure that people who find themselves in the difficult situation of losing their jobs can have their applications processed as quickly as possible.

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