Dáil debates
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
Priority Questions
Social Welfare Benefits.
1:00 pm
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 102: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she is satisfied that social welfare payments are being processed within an acceptable timeframe; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34864/09]
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Processing times vary across schemes, having regard not only to the volume of applications but also to the requirements of each scheme. For example, a means assessment must be carried out for all social assistance schemes, medical examinations are required for illness related schemes and customers must satisfy the habitual residence conditions. In the case of the insurance based schemes, it may be necessary to ascertain details of foreign insurance records.
In general, average processing times for most schemes administered by the Department are within acceptable levels. For example, in the case of illness benefit, approximately 50,000 medical certificates are received each week and the average processing time is one week; 95% of maternity benefit claims are processed prior to the commencement of maternity leave; the average processing time for domestic state pension contributory claims is seven weeks; and the average processing time for child benefit is four weeks where the entire family resides in Ireland.
The average processing times nationally for jobseekers payments in September were under four weeks for jobseekers benefit and under eight weeks for jobseekers allowance. I appreciate that waiting times for the jobseekers payments are too long in some parts of the country and I assure the House that we are doing our best to address this with additional staff and improved procedures for processing claims.
Other schemes where steps are being taken to reduce processing times include the disability allowance and the invalidity pension. Receipt of the disability allowance is subject to a medical assessment, a means test and a habitual residency test. It can take time for each of these criteria to be met. The number of claims has also increased significantly from approximately 17,600 applications in 2006 to 21,000 in 2008. Entitlement to invalidity pension is based on satisfying medical and insurable contribution conditions. However, approximately 90% of applicants for invalidity pension are already in receipt of illness benefit from the Department while awaiting the result of their invalidity applications.
Overall, I appreciate the need to ensure that people can receive financial support from the Department as early as possible and I assure the House that we are doing our best to bring processing times in all schemes down to an acceptable level. In the meantime, it is important to remember that people who have urgent income support needs can apply for the means tested supplementary welfare allowance and greater than 95% of basic such applications are decided on and paid within the week.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I am not satisfied that applications are being processed within an acceptable timeframe. The Minister provided examples of payments which are made on time but I will outline cases where delays have occurred. The biggest issue with which we deal is the jobseekers allowance but I also wish to raise the back-to-education allowance. I do not know Deputy Shortall's experience of this issue but I am aware of a significant number of people who have returned to college on the basis of loans from credit unions or family members because their back-to-education allowance claims have not been processed. What are the timeframes for the back to education allowance and, importantly, what can the Minister do to ensure that people are not borrowing on the expectation that they will get something they may well not get?
On the lone parent allowance application, I know of someone who is waiting for a lone parent allowance application to be approved; I actually received an e-mail about it at 2.38 p.m. The person is waiting for the lone parent allowance application to be approved before the person's back-to-education allowance can even be considered. It is necessary to verify that the person is entitled to the first one before ascertaining if the person is entitled to the second one. That person has gone back to college with a very young child and does not know if the back to education allowance will be granted.
The other question I want to ask relates to the jobseeker's allowance. My party has raised this matter numerous times in this House, but I will give the Minister an example which happens to be in my constituency; in Edenderry the waiting time is 22 weeks. The Minister seemed horrified when she learned that on 11 September last, but I raised the matter in this House at least three times this year. In fact, the first time I raised it the waiting time was 16 weeks and the Minister was going to do something about it then. Whatever was done added another six weeks to the waiting time for the people in Edenderry. I wonder how the Minister will address such situations.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I will take the middle issue first. It is unusual where there is a complicated situation where somebody is not in receipt of a social welfare benefit already and is coming along looking for two payments at the same time. I can understand how-----
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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She looked for one first.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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She cannot qualify for the back to education allowance unless they can prove that she qualifies for the lone parent allowance. I can understand why that particular waiting time might be long.
Generally, there is not a long delay on lone parent allowance applications. I do not think I have the figure for the waiting time for that allowance to hand, but I shall-----
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Sorry, I do have it. Yes, it is 13 weeks for the lone parent allowance application. However, as the Deputy will be aware, there are issues in that regard. It is not merely the case that one must have a child; a person must also be living alone and the income must be assessed. It is the income that takes time to assess.
Some 11,710 applications for back to education allowance have already been approved. This is a valuable increase of 67% this year. There are still approximately 4,000 cases awaiting a decision, a number of which may have come in only recently when people have made late decisions. The Department is working its way through that. I am encouraged by the number of people who have applied for it.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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What is the average processing time?
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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A question on the back to education allowance is coming up.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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The Minister can deal with it later then.
Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Minister should not anticipate future questions.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I am sorry. What was the Deputy's third question?
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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It related to Edenderry, as an example of lengthy waiting times. There are plenty of examples - Ballinrobe, Tuam, Boyle. We raised them every time as well and they are not improving either.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy is quite correct about Edenderry. There is a long waiting time but it is now shorter than it was.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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It is now. The Deputy is correct in stating it was 16 weeks at the beginning of the summer. It then increased to 22 weeks. That is entirely unacceptable.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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We stated at the time that additional staff would be put in there. For managerial reasons etc., those staff were only put in at the later end of the summer because staff had to be redeployed from other offices.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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I use Edenderry as an example. There are problems, not everywhere but in a significant number of towns, that need to be addressed. I do not want the Minister to deal with Edenderry in isolation.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Deal with the general problem.
Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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A very brief final comment from the Minister.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Since we were last here there were three issues outstanding that were going to affect the processing of claims and they were three issues that were outstanding with the union at the time. One of them related to setting up an appointments system. The second related to making decisions speedily, particularly on jobseeker's benefit, and to being able to give people an indication immediately on whether they would qualify. The third related to allowing the branch managers make the decision, which was part of the agreement that was reached last year.
Following our discussions and, indeed, the highlighting of the CPSU issue here, agreement was reached on the first two of those. That is working well and efficiently and has been in the best interests of both the clients and staff. No progress has been made yet on allowing the branch officers make the decisions. That is an outstanding issue which must now go to the Labour Court.
Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I am afraid we need to move on.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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That is the issue that will affect the processing times in the towns of which Deputy Enright spoke. When one looks at the list, delays are occurring where branch offices are taking the claims but do not have the right to make the decisions.
Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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How long will that take? People are waiting.
Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Unfortunately, it has gone into the labour relations process.
Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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-----in ainm an Teachta Róisín Shortall, le do thoil, a Aire.