Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 46: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will urgently prioritise the development of a single means testing unit or facility in her Department whereby persons could submit their documentation once, with any updates arising from changed circumstances, and then the means tests for all schemes or payments that the household apply for could be run from this data saving persons and her Department from unnecessarily wasting time and resources; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11872/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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My Department operates a range of means tested schemes and these schemes, including the means testing elements, are administered through a network of local and central offices. In the case of means tested social assistance schemes, the vast majority of claimants are means tested only once. In a small number of cases, a second means test may be required if they apply for basic supplementary welfare allowance or rent / mortgage interest supplement.

Two important projects are currently underway which will enhance the delivery of means tested payments.

The objective of the first project is to facilitate the capture and storage of means information and the calculation of customer means across social assistance schemes. This application now is in use in use in four scheme areas and is in the process of being rolled out to further schemes.

One of the benefits of this project is that the Department will, where appropriate, be able to re-use means information already held which in turn will provide better customer service by reducing the need for different parts of the Department to request information from the applicant. Other benefits of this project include:

· achieving qualitative and quantitative improvements in productivity

· achieving value for money in the use of resources;

· implementing secure control processes;

· providing better management information;

· allowing for the future introduction of mobile working to facilitate the electronic capture of data at time of investigation; and

· placing the Department in a position to anticipate and respond to changing business demands e.g. additional means factors, changes to scheme rules etc.

The second project involves the establishment of the National Employment and Entitlements Service (NEES). This will fully integrate the former FÁS employment services and community programmes and the former HSE Community Welfare Services (CWS) with the income maintenance role of the Department.

This project will transform social welfare offices into one-stop-shops where clients can access their entitlements and get help with planning their return to work. The Department is well advanced with a number of initiatives that facilitate the development of the NEES. Some 1,000 staff from the CWS became full staff members of the Department on 1 October 2011. The Employment Services and Community Employment Programmes have approximately 700 staff and provide a range of services to unemployed people, employed job seekers and employers. They were integrated into my Department on 1st January 2012.

The NEES project will result in a more coordinated approach to the provision of service to the public. This will create opportunities to remove duplication of work, including in the area of means assessment.