Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 429: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the average length of time it takes to process an application for invalidity payments. [25464/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department makes every effort to process all its claims as quickly as possible. The average number of weeks taken to award an invalidity pension (IP) claim is currently 32 weeks.

It should be noted that his average figure includes the time taken to award claims made under EU regulations and bi-lateral agreements – these cases are complex and tend to take a longer time to process than domestic cases.

In addition, it is important to note that IP claims are not processed solely in the order in which they are received in the Department. Priority is given to those claims where the customer is in receipt of short-term illness benefit (IB) but where their IB is due to expire – such claims are processed in order of the due date for the expiry of their IB. IP claims received from customers who are in receipt of IB but where their IB is not of finite duration are processed on a separate track, in order of date of receipt in the Department.

The average of 32 weeks refers to the time taken to award new IP claims of all three types.