Seán Conlan (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the measures being taken to address the backlog of applications for disability allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52601/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Disability allowance is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged over 16 and under 66. The disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, a means test and a habitual residency test.

The processing time for individual disability allowance claims may vary in accordance with their relative complexity in terms of the three main qualifying criteria, the person’s circumstances and the information they provide in support of their claim. In addition, a request for a review or an appeal by a person adds to the length of time taken to deal with the claim.

Approximately 380 disability allowance applications are received for processing each week and, at the end of October, there were 7,338 applications awaiting decision.

A major service delivery modernisation project has been recently completed for disability allowance to improve the efficiency of administration and to help deal with the increased volumes. This involved the deployment of information technology solutions and associated business process re-organisation

An in-depth business process improvement initiative will shortly be commenced and a programme will be put in place to ensure that there is adequate capacity to deal with the weekly intake and to eliminate the backlog of new applications. In the meantime, temporary staff have been assigned to disability allowance section to support the modernisation project and to assist in reducing the backlog.

Any person who is awaiting a decision on their disability allowance application may apply for means-tested supplementary welfare allowance from their local community welfare officer.