Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will ease qualification requirements for back to education allowance in view of the current economic situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23455/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Since its introduction, the underlying objective of the back to education allowance (BTEA) scheme has been to equip people on social welfare payments with qualifications that will enable them to obtain employment in the labour market. It is a second chance educational opportunities scheme for people on welfare payments who wish to participate in full time education and who would not otherwise be able to do so. Improvements to the scheme were announced in the recent supplementary budget. The qualifying period has been reduced to three months for access to the second level option. Also, jobseekers who engage with the Department's facilitator programme can access the third level option at nine months on the recommendation of a facilitator.

In general, to qualify for participation, an applicant must be at least 21 years of age prior to commencing an approved course of study. However, lone parents and recipients of jobseekers' payments who are out of formal education for at least 2 years can qualify at 18 years of age. In addition, an applicant must be in receipt of a relevant social welfare payment for 3 months if pursuing a second level course or 12 months if pursuing a third level course. In response to the current economic circumstances, the qualifying period for the third level option is reduced to 9 months for those who are participating in the National Employment Action Plan process or engaging with a departmental facilitator. Also, people who are awarded statutory redundancy may access the scheme immediately, provided an entitlement to a relevant social welfare payment is established prior to commencing an approved course of study.

The requirement to be in receipt of a social welfare payment for a minimum period has always been a feature of the scheme. A waiting period is considered essential to confer entitlement to income support for an indefinite period and is considered necessary in the context of targeting scarce resources at those who need it most. The back to education allowance has an important role to play in enhancing the employability skills of jobseekers and the qualifying conditions of the scheme will continue to be monitored in the context of the objectives of the scheme and changes in the economic climate.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 56: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will put in place procedures to speed up the process of applications for unemployment assistance with particular reference to the need to alleviate hardship, anxiety and stress caused by delays; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23460/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as expeditiously as possible. The staff and other resources available to the Department are regularly reviewed having regard to the workload arising and other competing demands. The average processing time for claims processed in May was 3.68 weeks for jobseekers benefit and 6.35 weeks for jobseekers allowance.

During the period May to December 2008 an additional 158 staff were assigned to local offices to deal with the increased volume of claims. Also 32 additional temporary staff were recruited with effect from 2 March 2009 to support the offices with a particularly high volume of claims awaiting a decision. In addition, 16 Social Welfare Inspectors were allocated and 15 of these staff have been assigned to date, to various locations throughout the country to undertake means testing and other work associated with processing claims for the jobseekers allowance.

As many local offices are very close to capacity as regards accommodating further staff, the Department has established a number of central decision units around the country. Five such units have been set up in Dublin, Sligo, Finglas, Carrick-on-Shannon and Roscommon, which will comprise of a total of 57 staff. Currently 49 of these staff are in place. Work has recently commenced on setting up further units in Tallaght and Wexford. Since early 2008 we have been examining all aspects of the work associated with the processing of claims and streamlining them wherever possible without, of course, compromising our scheme controls. Examples of process improvement initiatives introduced recently include: · A streamlined process for people who had a claim in the previous 2 years · Application forms for the jobseeker schemes are now available on the Department's website. This means that anyone who wants to make a claim can print the form at home and bring it to the local office completed. This helps reduce queuing times. · More straight-forward procedures for providing evidence of identity and address have been introduced · A more streamlined procedure for claimants moving to jobseekers allowance when their jobseekers benefit expires. · We have introduced an appointment system for taking claims in 16 offices and plan to extend this to other offices over the coming months.

The Deputy will be aware that anyone suffering hardship can apply for Supplementary Welfare Allowance. The supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA) is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE). SWA provides a safety net against poverty in that it gives a statutory entitlement to a minimum weekly income, based on criteria set out in legislation. The majority of SWA claims are processed within a matter of days. SWA payments are divided into two main categories:

- those who have income needs that cannot be met from mainline social welfare payments, and

- those awaiting a social welfare payment.