Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the financial cost of the major service delivery modernisation project recently undergone in her Department; her assessment on the impact this project has had in the reduction of waiting times for social welfare payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42008/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department has been undertaking service delivery modernisation projects for over a decade and would not be able to meet increased demand with reduced resources without investing in this programme of work across all its services.

In delivering services to its clients, the Department administers over 70 separate schemes and services which impact on the lives of almost every person in the State. Each week, over 1.4 million people receive a social welfare payment and, when qualified adults and children are included, over 2.2 million people benefit from weekly payments. Some 600,000 families receive child benefit payments in respect of over 1.1 million children each month. The day to day activities of the Department included (full year 2011):

- 2.2 million applications processed;

- 87.6 million scheme payments made;

- 982,000 control reviews;

- 6.8 million telephone calls answered;

- 34,000 social welfare appeals finalised;

- 153,000 PPS numbers allocated.

Most of the related schemes and services have been, or will be, addressed under the programme for Service Delivery Modernisation.

Each project under the modernisation programme is focused on business process improvements in the relevant business area with major changes to how staff work and interact with customers, and supported through new technology solutions on the department’s modern integrated technology platform. Each of these projects is rigorously assessed, governed and implemented based on specific business requirements and its contribution to the overall strategic objectives of the department.

Benefits have been achieved over time, not only in improved customer service but in administration of schemes through integrated systems; reduced system ‘downtime’ (1.21% in 2011 compared to 2.13% in 2009); agile response to required change including budget changes under the Social Welfare Act; enhanced work flow to maximise resources; integration with payment and reconciliation systems; ability to take on increased workload without commensurate increase in staff resources; more efficient and flexible communication products such as automated customer communications and use of text messaging; use of integrated scanning technologies to support end-to-end processing of claims; authenticated online services; support for major service initiatives such as moving customers from payable orders to electronic payment mechanisms; agile development environment to support introduction of new schemes such as the early child care supplement; robust infrastructure that supports on-going system improvements through a monthly release cycle; parallel project development; enhanced certification processing to support customer communications and control functions such as child benefit Irish residency certificates, and changes to continuing eligibility, residency and employment; improved overpayment and debt management; and ability to deliver new functionality such as statements of customer contributions and a new PRSI refunds application.

Examples of benefits achieved include:

- There has been a significant increase in claims activity in local offices since mid-2008. The number of claims processed in 2008 increased by 88% (216,000 additional claims) and a further 43% in 2009 (198,000 additional claims), with activity falling slightly through 2010 and 2011/12.

- In 2011 there was in excess of 500,000 claims processed in local offices nationally – this was double the level of activity in 2007.

- It should be noted that a similar number of claims (500,000) were also closed in local offices in 2011, giving a total ‘claim churn’ of over 1 million customers in 2011.

- Average processing times for jobseeker allowance and jobseeker benefit claims have stabilised at 5 weeks and 2 weeks respectively, lower than peak processing times in 2009.

- Some 95% of state pension contributory claims are paid by due date.

- Average processing times for family income supplement has remained at 17 weeks over the last two years.

- The department received 1.4 million claims for various non-weekly schemes such as child benefit (144,386 claims received, roughly half in respect of new births), household benefits, treatment benefits and supplementary welfare allowance. The average processing time for circa 80% of these claims is now 1 week and almost all of the remainder are processed within a month.

There are some schemes which are receiving particular attention. For example, processing times for carers allowance and invalidity pension which amounted to 3% of received claims in 2011 are not acceptable. Increased demand by individuals for these schemes has put pressure on the administration of the department to service this demand, resulting in a requirement to increase productivity. To this end major service delivery modernisation projects have taken place in these business areas over the last 2 years to improve the efficiency of their administration. These projects involve the deployment of information technology solutions and associated business processes. The new system will introduce significant processing efficiencies and a quicker and more responsive service to the customers by optimising performance and providing improved customer service. However, change of this magnitude needs time to build and bed in and it is expected to be a number of months before the backlogs are reduced to an acceptable level.

The department’s modernisation programme is a fundamental part of government’s public service reform agenda and in this regard the department is currently undergoing another period of major transformation moving from a passive transaction focused model of income support to a proactive model which is customer centric and progressive. The integration of the community welfare service, and employment and community services of Fás was made possible through the investments in modern technology over the preceding years. Change on this scale also requires substantive changes for staff and these initiatives are being delivered under the auspices of the Public Service Agreement (PSA) and with significant input from staff who are required to make major changes to how they work.

Expenditure on all the Department’s SDM related projects in the period since commencement, some eleven years ago, amounts to just over €82m at the end of 2011. It is expected that expenditure on the service delivery modernisation programme in 2012 will amount to some €4.8m. Further information in relation to the Department’s modernisation programme, including costs, are provided in the department’s annual report which can be found on the website www.welfare.ie.

I am satisfied that the investments made in the modernisation of systems and processes represent good value for money and have positioned the department to best meet the needs of customers.