John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 107 of 7 November 2012, in which she acknowledged processing times for carer's allowance applications were not satisfactory and that appropriate action would be taken which would resolve the situation, how effective the service delivery modernisation project has been; the way the efficiency levels have been improved since completion of the new carer's system in June 2012; and the reason processing times for the historic cases which have been ringfenced do not seem to have improved. [4236/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Good inroads have been made over the last number of months by my Department to clear the current backlog of carer’s allowance applications 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.

Following the completion of a major 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. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of new claims processed in recent months where claims processed have substantially exceeded claim intake. The total number carer’s allowance applications which were awaiting decision at mid-June 2012 was approximately 11,600. At present, the number is under 8,000. Additional resources have been allocated to this task and are now fully trained. The claim clearance plan is continually monitored in order that the backlog is eliminated in the shortest possible timeframe. Average processing times will not show any significant improvement as the Department continues to clear older applications and until the remaining backlogged claims have been eliminated.