Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 116: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the fact that an application for carer's allowance made on 20 December 2012 will take eight months to process; her views that this is acceptable; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11912/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I confirm that an application for carer's allowance has been received from the above named.

On completion of the necessary investigations relating to all aspects of her claim, a decision will be made and the person concerned will be notified directly of the outcome.

Some 7,698 carer's allowance applications are registered and awaiting a decision at present.

A major service delivery modernisation project is under way to improve the efficiency of administration of the carer's allowance scheme. This involves the development of information technology functions and associated business process re-organisation. The first tranche of new care's allowance claims began to be processed under the new system in August 2011.

It is anticipated that the new system will introduce significant processing efficiencies and a quicker and more responsive service to the customer. Accordingly, the project is being given high priority and involves a significant level of time and commitment from the relevant staff in the Department. This has had a short-term negative impact on claim processing times which is expected to continue until the completion of the modernisation project in June of this year when all existing carer's allowance claims will be transferred onto the new processing systems. In addition, to dealing with approximately 330 new carer's allowance applications that are received each week, overtime working is being applied to help reduce backlogs that have built up. However, it is expected to be a significant number of months before the backlog is reduced to an acceptable level.

While the new systems and processes will facilitate a significant improvement in overall processing times, it should be noted the intake of carer's allowance claims remains at a high level and that individual claims may continue to take some time to process.

In the meantime, if a person's means are insufficient to meet their needs while awaiting a decision on a claim, they may apply for a means tested supplementary welfare allowance payment from their local community welfare officer.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Question 117: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if a person can be in receipt of both the over 80s allowance, €10.00 weekly, and the living alone allowance, €7.70 weekly, in addition to their State pensions with a total weekly increase of €17.70 or if the payments are mutually exclusive; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11919/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The over 80 allowance is an additional payment of €10 per week paid to people who are in receipt of a social welfare payment, including State pensions and who are over 80 years of age. It is not paid to qualified adults.

The living alone increase is an additional payment of €7.70 per week made to people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments, including State pensions and who are living alone. It is also available to people who are under 66 years of age who are living alone and receiving payments under one of a number of invalidity type schemes.

Both payments can be paid concurrently provided a person satisfies the conditions for each of the allowances.