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

Timelines are in line with where they were pre-pandemic. Generally, where it is clear that a person has an immediate need, every effort is made to ensure he or she receives a payment on the same day.

With regard to staffing, there are 412 people across all grades in the community welfare service. In light of the increased volume of applications, and as part of the budget, we secured agreement for approximately 74 additional staff to be assigned to the community welfare service. Recruitment has commenced for these additional staff. It is anticipated that they will be in place by the first quarter of 2023. In the interim, until the staff have been recruited, 30 social welfare inspectors have been temporarily reassigned to the community welfare service since the start of November to assist with claims processing. While we do not have a full picture until the end of the year, we are starting to see now a falloff in applications for additional needs payments over recent weeks. This can probably be attributed to the lump sum payments that have been paid out.

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