Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 451: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the average processing time that it takes for a claim for jobseeker's allowance to be dealt with; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32050/08]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 452: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the average processing time that it takes for a claim for jobseeker's benefit to be dealt with; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32051/08]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 453: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the processing time that it takes for each individual social welfare office to deal with a claim for jobseeker's benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32052/08]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 454: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the processing time that it takes for each individual social welfare office to deal with a claim for jobseeker's allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32053/08]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 455: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the numbers of individuals on a national, county and local social welfare office basis waiting for their application for jobseeker's benefit to be processed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32054/08]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 456: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the numbers of individuals on a national, county and local social welfare office basis waiting for their application for jobseeker's allowance to be processed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32055/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 451 to 456, inclusive, together.

The 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 between the two jobseeker schemes and involve, among other things, the need to establish the person's social insurance record, establish the person's identity or their place of habitual residence and to assess means where appropriate. In some cases delays arise where the person fails to supply all pertinent information in support of their application.

The average processing time for applications processed in August was 3 weeks for jobseeker's benefit claims and 5 weeks for jobseeker's allowance claims. The overall performance in any individual office in processing claims can be adversely affected by a wide variety of factors, including increased inflow of claims, staff vacancies and the duration of such vacancies and the turnover of staff in the office. Since the beginning of year there has been a significant increase in the number of claims for a jobseeker payment and the Department has taken a number of measures to deal with the increased workload. These measures include the assignment of 31 additional staff to local offices, extending the contracts of some temporary staff and additional resources for overtime.

Following are the following tabular statements: Table 1 — Average processing times in weeks for jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker's allowance claims decided in August. Table 2 — The number of jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker's allowance claims awaiting a decision at w/e 20 September 2008. The tables list both Local Offices and Branch Offices. Branch Offices are operated under a contract for service and decisions on claims taken in Branch Offices are made in its departmental parent Local Office. Statistics in relation to processing times and claims awaiting decisions are not available on a county basis, as the catchment area of Local Offices and Branch Offices do not correspond exactly with county boundaries.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 457: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when the schedule of assets of a deceased person (details supplied) will be examined; and if the option of cancellation or suspension of the repayment of the overpayment will be considered taking account of the circumstances of this case. [32063/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The deceased person in this case was assessed with an overpayment of €9,855.56 in respect of the period 19/02/1999 to 24/10/2002 and had been repaying this amount by way of weekly deductions of €12.50 from his pension. At the date of death he had repaid €3,312.50 leaving an outstanding balance of €6,543.00

In circumstances where a person dies leaving an outstanding overpayment it is the Department's policy to seek recovery of the amount from the estate of the deceased. In order to determine if there are sufficient funds to discharge the debt, a copy of the schedule of assets of the estate is required by the Department. A copy of the schedule of assets was requested from the Solicitor for the estate on the 24th September 2008. On receipt of the schedule of assets the case will be reviewed and a decision made with regard to the monies due to the Department.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 458: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason a person (details supplied) in County Kildare has not received assistance from a community welfare officer; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32098/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, an exceptional needs payment (ENP) may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which the applicant is unable to meet out of his/her own resources. There is no automatic entitlement to this payment. Each application is determined by the Executive based on the particular circumstances of the case. Eligible people would normally be in receipt of a social welfare or health service executive payment.

The Dublin/Mid-Leinster area of the Executive has advised that the person concerned applied to the local Community Welfare Office (CWO) for a number of ENPs on 22 September 2008. The CWO refused the ENP applications on the grounds that an exceptional need was not established. The person concerned may re-apply for an ENP if there are any changes in her circumstances.