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

My Department is committed to providing a quality service for all of the people receiving payments from us, ensuring applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the qualification criteria. Payments under schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of illness-related schemes, can take longer to process. Similarly, means-tested payments also require more detailed investigation and interaction with the applicant, thereby lengthening the decision-making process in some cases. Delays can also arise if information is required from social security organisations in other jurisdictions and where additional information has been requested from the applicant but remains outstanding.

In 2019 the average time to process new applications for carer's allowance and disability allowance is 14 weeks, while for invalidity pension applications the average time is nine weeks. Processing time for carer's benefit applications, as of September 2019, is ten weeks. I reassure the Deputy that claim processing and the length of time it takes are kept under active review, with additional and targeted attention focused on carer's allowance and disability allowance applications. It includes, since September, the assignment of a number of temporary staff to assist in processing new applications for carer's allowance and disability allowance, coupled with the implementation of a new business process for the front office/back office programme. This change is working well and initial outcomes are very positive. It is hoped to have the processing of applications under these schemes back within targets by the end of the year.

A similar focus on carer's benefit claim processing times in the past few months reduced processing times from 14 weeks in July to ten weeks in September. We can certainly see that when we put extra resources into areas, we get significant results. I assure the Deputy of my Department's continued attention in providing the best service we can in the most timely manner possible for the people we serve.

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