Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 372: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of applications for child benefit received by her Department in each of the past five years; the number of cases outstanding for each year; the average length of time for processing cases for child benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37430/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The number of claims for Child Benefit received in the last 5 years is as follows:

There is currently a total of 8,600 claims for non-resident children of EU migrant workers, dating from late 2006 to September 2007, to be finalised. Of these, some 1,200 were received in 2006, and 7,400 in 2007. In a further 2,700 non-resident claims received in 2008, additional information has been requested to enable the claims to be finalised. There are in addition some 9,100 claims in respect of non-Irish born children, now resident in Ireland, at various stages of processing prior to finalisation. 600 of these claims were received in December 2007, the balance of 8,500 having been received in 2008.

For children born in Ireland, approximately 65,000 each year, their claims are processed in either an automated or semi-automated manner using information received from the General Registrar's office when their births are registered. These claims are paid within an average of 10 days of the birth registration.

For non-Irish born, but resident children, the average processing time is currently 10 months. These cases are slower to process as the customer must satisfy the Habitual Residency condition test and this may entail contacting employers, Department of Justice and other relevant bodies to confirm their status in the state. This additional complexity combined with an increase in the volume of applications received in recent years, have lead to an arrears of claims to be processed, which is currently being addressed by the additional 9 staff that have been allocated to clear the arrears of these cases over the next 6 months.

Claims for non-resident children paid under EU regulations are normally processed in 3-6 months, depending on the additional information that has to be obtained. Before payment of Child Benefit is made for non-resident children it is necessary to contact the authorities in the country of residence of the children to confirm details and establish what, if any, family benefits are payable in the home country as this will determine entitlement to Irish payments. The volume of these claims received during 2006 and 2007 increased from 50 per week to over 300 per week at one point, with over 25,000 such claims being received in this period. This has resulted in the significant arrears of claims to be processed. These arrears of claims are currently being dealt with; the average processing time is 18 months. Some 16 additional staff have been assigned to this area and it is anticipated that all arrears will be cleared during the first half of 2009.