Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide in tabular form the shortest, longest and average waiting time yearly between 2006 and 2012 for carer’s allowance applications. [15698/13]

Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of carer’s allowance applicants who are waiting over three months, six months, nine months and 12 months for their claims to be processed. [15699/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 180 and 181 together.

A major initiative to eliminate carer’s allowance backlogs has been in progress and is due to complete at the end of this month. Back at the beginning of September 2012, when the initiative started, there were over 10,000 carer’s allowance applications awaiting decision. At present, carer’s allowance applications being received are being processed without delay and none of these is waiting in excess of 3 months.

With regard to the backlog which is in the process of being cleared, there are approximately 430 applications still waiting to be examined and it is expected that these will be processed by the end of this month. All these applications date from mid-July 2012 and, therefore, are waiting between 6 and 9 months. The total number of applications which have already been processed and are awaiting additional information in order to make a decision is 1,725. The information required to finalise these cases is, generally, from the claimant or a report from a Social Welfare Inspector.

Of those 1,725 applications, approximately 310 are waiting less than 3 months, 50 are waiting between 3 and 6 months, 1,070 are waiting between 6 and 9 months, 228 are waiting 9 to 12 months and 67 are waiting over 12 months. These figures are to be seen in the context of an annual average intake of 15,000 new applications and in excess of 8,000 applications decided since the start of 2013 alone. The average waiting time in weeks for carer’s allowance applications from 2008 to 2012 is contained in the table.

Carer’s Allowance Average Waiting Time Yearly