Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Department aims to process and pay without delay all successful appeals returned by the social welfare appeals office. There are currently no delays in implementing successful appeal decisions across schemes. The Deputy has been kind enough to acknowledge that we have completely overhauled our IT and processing systems in respect of domiciliary care allowance, carer's allowance and family income supplement. The only area in which delays remain is that which relates to disability allowance. Obviously, we inherited vast delays from the previous Administration. In the case of disability allowance, temporary delays are currently being experienced by some successful appellants. We are working on the substantial backlog which has built up in this area. This is part of the ongoing service delivery modernisation programme the Department is in the process of implementing Said programme has also included the putting in place of a new computer system and more efficient processes to improve the Department's service to customers who are on disability allowance. The disability allowance section is well on its way to eliminating the backlog of new applications. This is the way we dealt with the problems in each of the other areas. The successful clearing of a high number of claims in backlog has resulted in an equally high level of appeals which are been serviced as quickly as possible. I do not know if that makes sense to the Deputy but the processing of claims and efforts to clear the backlog have led to an increase in the number of appeals. If people wish to appeal, they are being accommodated much more quickly. This means that a proportion of cases are returned to the system more rapidly than was previously the case.

Of the 1,700 successful appeal cases I reported to the Deputy in my reply to his question of 19 November, some 500 have been processed and there are now 1,200 disability allowance cases awaiting clearance. The Department is committed to clearing these in the coming weeks. I hope that the vast bulk of them will be dealt with before Christmas. Additional staff resources have already been assigned to this work.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

As most of these customers are already in payment on other schemes, arrears due will issue once overlaps with these other scheme payments are taken into account. Any person whose means are insufficient to meet their needs while awaiting a decision on a social welfare payment may apply for means-tested supplementary welfare allowance.

I again assure the Deputy that customer service is a key priority for me and my Department. I am happy to report that major customer service improvements have been made during the past year in the processing of claims and appeals on all the illness related schemes.

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