Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

I am raising the issue of the need for the Department of Social and Family Affairs to put in place procedures to speed up the processing of forms for agents who collect social welfare payments on behalf of claimants who are unable to cash their payable order books due to illness or loss of mobility. Would the Minister consider providing special priority envelopes for such applications as I have suggested?

A number of constituents have contacted me about problems collecting their pensions due to illness. They applied to the Department of Social and Family Affairs to get permission for an agent to collect their pension books on their behalf but there has been a delay. For example, a person telephoned me and explained why he did not receive his pension. When the person rang the Department's offices in Sligo, he was initially told that the book could not be located. Later, he was told that it would be returned to the local post office and, in the meantime, the person should go to the community welfare office to get a payment. This was not appropriate as the person in question is not mobile and being asked to go to the community welfare officer is not realistic. The person should not have been put in that position.

In a similar situation an elderly lady wanted to get permission for her home help to collect her pension on her behalf but, when she wrote to the Department's offices in Sligo, there was a delay in processing the application. She was told that she should go to the community welfare officer and get a payment in the meantime, which would not be practical for many reasons. Moreover, many people would not like to do that, as they believe that it should only be done as a last resort. When the two elderly people in question telephoned the Department, they were left hanging on the line for a long time. I am not blaming the Department as many calls are received by the Department.

For people who want to apply for an agent to collect their pensions on their behalf, would the Minister consider providing a special envelope that they could send to the Department? They could then give it priority and deal with it immediately. This concerns elderly people, pensioners living on a low income who may live on their own, and this suggestion is one way the matter could be dealt with by the Department.