Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. I commend his work in highlighting issues with claiming illness benefit. I appreciate his genuine concern.

The Department informs me that people who are due payments and whose certificates and claims are in order are receiving their entitlements promptly. Departmental staff are processing over 9,000 transactions per day, which is an indication of the volume of work in that section. It is important to note, however, that there are always individual cases, as the Deputy has highlighted, whereby people’s payments are legitimately stopped, paused or delayed for a variety of reasons, including the late submission of medical certificates.

As the Deputy will know, in recent months issues arose with the scheme when my Department transferred administration of the illness benefit scheme from an old legacy payments IT system which is approaching end of life to its core BusinessObjects IT platform in August. Since then, the Department has worked hard to resolve these issues and to ensure that claims are processed and paid promptly. We have made good progress in this regard, with payment levels maintained at the expected norm over recent months. Telephone helpline and call-handling performance have also been addressed and is now back to normal levels, although customers may still sometimes, experience delays due to call volumes. I agree that it is not acceptable that families have to make phone calls lasting more than eight hours. I can also confirm that discussions with GP representatives with respect to a move from paper to e-certification have concluded successfully. As a result, we expect e-certification to be introduced this year. This will significantly improve service to clients and GPs. The Department has had a long and positive partnership with GPs over many years and is committed to maintaining good working relationships with our GP partners.

Customers who experience an urgent financial need as a result of possible delays in respect of their illness benefit payments can apply to the Department’s community welfare services in order to obtain interim payments. They should contact their local Intreo centres in that regard. The illness benefit section can be contacted by phone on 01 7043300 or 1890 928 400, or by email to illnessbenefit@welfare.ie.

I understand the Deputy's concerns over this particular case. I will follow up further on the individual case. Eight hours of phone calls is not acceptable and we need to do something about it. However, the section is handling 9,000 transactions per day and at times it is very busy.

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