Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Department is committed to making decisions on entitlements as quickly as possible. In general, applications under social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions, including those mentioned by the Deputy, take longer to process. Before a decision can be made on entitlement to domiciliary care allowance, evidence of the additional care needs of the child must be provided and examined. Similarly, before a decision can be made on entitlement to carer's allowance, evidence of the care recipient's care requirement, the level of care the carer provides and the carer's means must be provided. In respect of disability allowance, evidence of the person’s medical condition, the extent to which it restricts him or her from taking up employment, his or her means and habitual residency must be provided. The target in processing applications for domiciliary care allowance is to finalise 90% of new claims within ten weeks. This is being achieved. The target in processing applications for carer's allowance is to finalise 70% of new claims within 12 weeks. Currently, the average waiting time in processing new carer's allowance applications is 15 weeks. Obviously, the target is not being achieved. The target in processing applications for disability allowance is to process 75% of new claims within 12 weeks. Currently, the waiting time in processing new disability allowance applications is 13 weeks.

My Department recognises that the current processing times for carer's allowance and disability allowance must be improved and is working to achieve this. Staff resources have recently been reassigned to work in claims processing. A redesigned application form will be available shortly to try to simplify the application process. The new form will allow carers to provide more information on the type and level of care they provide. The aim is to provide deciding officers with the information they need to expedite decisions on entitlement. The implementation of a new information technology system to process illness benefit claims, as part of the ongoing modernisation programme in my Department, will support the deployment of additional staff to support the processing of carer's allowance applications. It is hoped this will help to reduce the average waiting time below the current level of 13 weeks. The processes in place and resources assigned to these areas of my Department, with the number of medical assessors available to provide medical opinions, are kept under constant review to ensure delays are minimised.

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