Gerald Nash (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I raise concerns that have been expressed by many Members relating to ongoing delays in the processing of illness benefit payments. I am dealing with a case involving an individual who is not from my constituency and who contacted me having waited eight weeks a claim to be processed. I raised this issue two weeks ago in another context but it does not seem that the situation has improved since then. Members have been told in reply to parliamentary questions and in the most recent statement by the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, which was published on its website on 21 September, that the delays result from the introduction of a computerised programme to process these payments. It is no longer good enough that people have to wait a significant number of weeks to claim a basic payment from the Department.

The illness benefit is a payment for a person who is sick and cannot work. Such people pay into the system and expect a service in return.My understanding is that the delays arise from the lack of negotiations with GPs on the transition from a paper form to an online process. From talking to GPs, my understanding is that very little in the way of negotiations has taken place. The Department and the National Association of General Practitioners, NAGP, had looked at appointing a mediator to resolve the issues they had but the idea was pulled at the last minute. In the meantime, thousands of people are waiting for illness benefit payments to be made to them. These people are in very difficult circumstances but the only response from the Department is to go and see the community welfare officer. Nobody wants to have to go to see the community welfare officer to enable themselves to make ends meet while they await the processing of a payment. I ask for the Minister to ensure sufficient staff are allocated to the illness benefit processing section of the Department and to allow claims made on the old forms to be processed forthwith, because there are many people who have been living on the clippings of tin over the past few weeks awaiting their payment. This is something this House can unite on so I ask it to appeal to the Minister to ensure there are sufficient staff to process these payments. People have been waiting far too long for payments to which they are entitled through the stamps they have paid.