Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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347. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications for carer's allowance that are currently waiting to be processed; the timescale for same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2557/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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While the time taken at present to process some carer’s allowance claims is not satisfactory, good inroads have been made over the last number of months by my Department to clear the current backlog and a plan is in place to process the remaining backlogged claims by the end of Q1 2013. I am happy that the actions they are taking will achieve this.

The number of applications awaiting decision for carer's allowance at the end of December 2012 was approx. 8,550. The number of applications which were awaiting decision in mid-June 2012 was 11,600.

Following the completion of a major service delivery modernisation project, an in-depth business process improvement (BPI) project was completed for the carer’s allowance scheme. This project focused on optimising output and customer service and the reduction of backlogs. The outcome of the review is the division of work into two streams. From Monday 3 September 2012, one team concentrates on dealing with new claim intake and processes these without delay and the other team is working on the backlog which is ring-fenced with a clear and targeted plan for its elimination. Additional resources have been allocation to this task and the claim clearance plan is continually monitored in order that the backlog is eliminated in the shortest possible timeframe.