Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

I am taking this matter on the Adjournment on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Social and Family Affairs.

There has been a very significant increase in the number of people applying for a jobseeker's payment during the past year. From February 2008 to February 2009, the live register increased by about 165,000 people, or over 87%. Staff in social welfare local offices are working extremely hard and productivity increased by 74% between the last quarter of 2007 and the final quarter of 2008. The Department delivers a front line service through a network of 62 local offices and 62 branch offices, and the service in Gort is delivered from a branch office. Branch offices are operated by private individuals on a contract for service basis. Under the terms of their contract, branch managers are required to ensure that staffing levels are adequate to allow for the efficient performance of the work of the office.

The main services provided from Gort branch office include jobseeker's payment, one parent family payment and an information service. All decisions on branch office claims are made in the parent local office, which in the case of Gort is the Ennis local office. There was a staffing issue in Gort recently which impacted on the processing times for jobseeker allowance claims. The issue is now resolved and additional inspector resources have been assigned to the area to deal with any backlog in means claim processing.

Following a number of staffing reviews, the Department has assigned extra staff to local offices to deal with the increase in the live register. More than 240 extra posts have been allocated to local offices in recent months, including an additional four staff assigned to the Ennis local office. A range of process improvement initiatives is also being introduced. The current average processing times in the Gort office are 2.6 weeks for jobseeker's benefit claims and 10.6 weeks for jobseeker's allowance claims. This compares with the February national average of three weeks for jobseeker's benefit and six weeks for jobseeker's allowance claims. The additional resources assigned to the Ennis office and the inspectorate area dealing with Gort will reduce the processing times over the coming months.

It is fully appreciated that people need to get access to financial and other supports as quickly as possible. While every effort is made to ensure that applications are processed as quickly as possible, anyone under financial pressure awaiting a decision on his or her claim for a jobseeker's payment can apply for the supplementary welfare allowance, which is subject to a means test and other qualifying conditions.

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