Dan Neville (Limerick, Fine Gael)
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344. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of care's allowance applications that are currently in the Department of Social Protection; the number of person who applied for carer's allowance in 2012; the number of applications for carer's allowance that were processed in 2012 and the number that were awarded and how many were disallowed. [18362/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The backlog of carer’s allowance applications has been cleared and we are currently in the process of finalising cases that still need additional information. The number of applications currently awaiting a decision is just under 4,000. The majority of these have already been processed and are awaiting additional information in order to make a decision. The information required to finalise these cases may be from the claimant themselves, a medical assessment opinion from one of the Department’s medical assessors or a report from a social welfare inspector. Once this outstanding information is received a decision will be made without delay. In 2012 there was 15,493 new carer’s allowance applications registered. There were 18,483 claims processed in 2012, with 9,880 awarded, 6,828 disallowed, and 1,775 withdrawn.