Noel O'Flynn (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 376: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if rent allowance will be awarded in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kilkenny; and if he will expedite a response. [32111/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The supplementary allowance (SWA) scheme, including rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE). The Executive has advised that it has no record of an application for rent supplement from the person concerned. The Executive has further advised that if the person concerned wishes to make an application for rent supplement then he should contact the Community Welfare Officer at his local health centre to discuss his entitlement to rent supplement.

Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 377: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the amount it would cost to extend the fuel allowance scheme to those persons previously in receipt of short term social welfare who take up community employment schemes. [32124/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

People in receipt of short-term social welfare payments such as jobseeker's benefit, illness benefit or occupational injuries benefit are not normally eligible to receive a fuel allowance. People in receipt of short-term jobseeker's allowance (i.e. less than 13 weeks) do not qualify for fuel allowance. After 13 weeks, they may be eligible to receive the allowance and to retain it while on a CE scheme.

There is a special arrangement in place to pay the smokeless fuel allowance element (€3.90 per week) to people who live in one of the designated urban smokeless fuel areas and who have been receiving one of these social welfare payment types for 13 weeks or more. To be eligible for this 'supplementary fuel allowance', applicants must satisfy the other standard conditions of the fuel allowance scheme, in particular that the combined weekly household income must not be more than €100 above the reference old age contributory pension rate applicable to the family size. As with the standard fuel allowance, only one smokeless fuel allowance is payable per household. Applications for this smokeless fuel allowance should be made through the local social welfare office.

Allowing recipients of short term social welfare payments to receive fuel allowance on taking up a community employment scheme would be a major policy change. The additional annual cost would be €2.5m in respect of approximately 4,800 short term social welfare recipients on CE schemes at present.

However, if policy was changed to allow short term social welfare recipients on CE to receive fuel allowance, the issue of extending the allowance to all 123, 000 people on short term benefits would have to be addressed. While not all of these would satisfy all the conditions for receipt of fuel allowance, the cost of even half of these becoming eligible would result in additional annual expenditure of the order of €32m. Any changes in relation to the conditions for eligibility for fuel allowance would have significant cost implications and would have to be considered in a Budgetary context and in the light of resources available to me for improvements in social welfare generally.

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 378: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his views on restoring child benefit to all children; the number of children who would be affected; the estimated cost of granting universal child benefit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32196/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Child benefit may be paid in respect of every child under the age of 16 years, who is ordinarily resident in the State. Payment can be extended to the 19th birthday if the child is in education, or incapable of self-support. The benefit is paid to the qualified person with whom the child resides and the qualified person must satisfy the Habitual Residence Condition.

The purpose of the Habitual Residence Condition (introduced in May 2004) is to allow access to our social welfare schemes to people who are genuinely and lawfully making Ireland their habitual residence, while preventing unwarranted access by persons who have little or no connection with the State.

Those who do not satisfy the HRC condition because they are in the asylum process, have direct provision available to them. In certain cases they may also avail of exceptional needs payments from the local Health Board for the period that their asylum application is being processed. In this manner the rights and welfare of the child are protected. As soon as refugee status or right to remain is granted to such people, they are accepted as habitually resident and they would therefore be entitled to child benefit in respect of their qualifying children.

The operation of the habitual residence condition in my Department continues to be monitored on an ongoing basis. The reason for the introduction of the HRC in May 2004 — to ensure that people who have not worked in Ireland or who have not established their habitual residence in Ireland should not avail of assistance schemes or child benefit — continues to be relevant. As a result there is no proposal to change the current arrangements.

Approximately 2000 claims to Child Benefit for some 3400 children have been refused since May 2004 as the applicant did not satisfy the habitual residence condition. Those who were refused were mainly persons whose claims to asylum were not yet finalized, who did not have a work permit or who had no attachment to the workforce in Ireland. In the same period, a total of over 160,000 new claims for Child Benefit was received and awarded.

The total number of children affected and the cost of paying Child Benefit if the Habitual Residency condition was not applied is not known. This is because the numbers of children in the state, in respect of whom child benefit has not been claimed due to an awareness of the HRC conditionality, is unknown.

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 380: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the applications processed by his Department; the average waiting time to process each application; the steps which he is taking to speed up the processing time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26901/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

My Department is committed to providing a quality customer service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are issued as expeditiously as possible having regard to the eligibility conditions which apply. These conditions vary from scheme to scheme and may involve, among other things, the need to establish the customer's social insurance record, verify medical incapacity for work, establish a customer's identity or their place of habitual residence and to assess means where appropriate. In some cases there is an unavoidable time lag involved in making the necessary enquiries with outside agencies to enable decisions to be made. Time can also elapse where applicants fail to supply all pertinent information in support of their application.

In any given year my Department processes nearly 1.9 million application forms in respect of some 50 separate welfare schemes and issues about 68 million payments. Details of the number of new applications processed for the principal welfare schemes in respect of the month of October 2007 together with the average times to award such applications are set out in the appended tabular statement.

In the past few years my Department has coped with increasing demands arising from significant changes to the social welfare code and in the numbers of persons accessing the system. While these factors have impacted on processing times, continuous efforts are made to improve these times. Operational procedures and the organisation of work continue to be reviewed and restructured to maximise the benefits of technology and new developments in processing techniques and business information.

There is also a continued emphasis on providing staff with the necessary training and development so as to ensure they have the requisite knowledge and skills to carry out their work. I am conscious of the need to provide a quality service to our customers, and with my officials, I am working towards ensuring that my Department continues to deliver a first class service.