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

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The community welfare service is committed to providing a quality service to all citizens, ensuring applications are processed and decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. The purpose of an additional needs payment is to assist with essential once-off expenditure which people could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income.

In 2022 97,224 additional needs payments were issued at a total value of more than €58 million. The increase in the number of additional needs payments follows an extensive communications campaign designed to increase the awareness of its availability to support people. In recent weeks, the number of additional needs payments issued by the Department has returned to levels seen pre-pandemic. This is likely to be influenced in part by the issuing of eight lump sum payments, designed to assist with the cost of living, totalling more than €1.2 billion.

Additional needs payment applications are varied and often quite complex, reflecting the individual circumstances being experienced. They cover a range of needs from supporting payment of a utility bill which might not be due for a number of weeks; to providing assistance with funeral expenses; to providing immediate support to help a family buy groceries. Where it is clear that a person has an urgent or immediate need, every effort will be made to ensure the claim is processed on the same day. Community welfare officers, CWOs, are experienced and can generally assess when a case is so urgent that it requires an immediate response. Approximately 10% of community welfare payments to customers across the country are made on this basis, which shows how responsive the service is to an urgent customer need. There are no backlogs at present for less urgent claims and work on-hand is within the scheme's normal processing levels. Complete applications are finalised within two weeks and less than two weeks' work is currently on hand.

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