Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this question on the extent to which the processing of applications for various social welfare payments can be expedited. My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that accurate decisions on entitlements are made as quickly as possible.

Processing targets for my Department are set out each year in the Revised Estimates Volume for the public service and kept under review. Processing statistics show the majority of schemes offered by my Department are closely approaching, achieving or exceeding their processing targets for 2020. They also show that the overall volume of claims processed to date in 2020, excluding the pandemic unemployment payment, is similar to the same period in 2019. Given the impact of the pandemic unemployment payment where the Department's staff had to process over 1.5 million applications in a short period of time, it is important to acknowledge the performance of the Department's staff in maintaining this level of service.

That is not to say that individual claimants or claimants on particular scheme types will not experience delays. As a consequence of different entitlement criteria across different schemes, the time needed to establish entitlement varies across the schemes. Schemes with multiple complex qualifying criteria can take longer to decide than schemes based solely on a person's contribution record. In addition, given the complexity of some schemes, paper applications received by the Department may be incomplete. Such applications will, by their nature, take longer to decide. The movement to online claim processing via means that it is now possible to apply online for a wide range of schemes. This has helped to improve the processing times of claims, as applications must be complete and include all requested documentation in order to be submitted online.

It is important to note that while an application is being processed, a person may apply for income support through supplementary welfare allowance. If a claim is decided in a person's favour after a delay, arrears will issue to the customer dated back to the date his or her claim was received.

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