Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The target for jobseeker's benefit is to process 90% of claims within three weeks. In May, 60% of claims were processed in that timeframe. The Deputy will note from the tables that processing times in many offices are significantly shorter than three weeks. In some cases, the average processing time is two weeks, one week or only a few days. The major problem is not in this area. The target for jobseeker's allowance is to process 90% of claims within six weeks. In May, 65% of claims were decided within that timeframe.

The figures the Deputy cited for certain offices are correct. She will note, however, that the offices in question are all branch offices. In an effort to speed up the processing of claims, applications from some of these branch offices have been transferred for processing in the five special units established recently. This means claims will no longer lie at the bottom of a pile in a local office. A further special unit will be established in Tallaght next month. The creation of a special unit in each region will speed up processing.

The unfortunate effect of the long processing times in some offices is that they skew the figures for the whole country. The Deputy asked the reason average processing times were much longer in some areas than in others. Some of the small offices with few staff have experienced a twofold or threefold increase in the number of claims, depending on local circumstances. In those areas where we determined that specific issues would arise, we ensured these issues would be addressed by the central units. I will deal with that matter in a moment.

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