Nicky McFadden (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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640. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the actions taken by her Department to clear backlogs on social welfare claims processed in the Longford office; if there has been a subsequent improvement in processing times and response as a result of these actions; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35151/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Following the completion of the Service Delivery Modernisation projects involving the developments of new information technology systems in Invalidity Pension, Carer’s Allowance and Disability Allowance a rolling programme of business process improvement (BPI) commenced for all schemes managed in Longford HQ. The objective of these projects was to introduce significant processing efficiencies and a quicker and more responsive service to our customer in the face of increased claim loads.

I am very pleased to say that claims involved in these backlogs have now all been actioned and in most cases cleared. The only area that is not yet fully cleared is Disability Allowance but major progress has been made and a plan is in place to action all backlogged applications by the end of July 2013. New claims in all the schemes are being actioned promptly upon receipt. The current average time to decide a new disability allowance application is now 7 weeks; invalidity pension is now 6 weeks; carer’s allowance is now 8 weeks: FIS is less than 2 week for new claims and in advance for renewals.

Following such a high volume of claim clearance in the second half of 2012 and the first half of 2013 the resulting volume of appeals is similarly high. The time these appeals claims take to clear negatively affects the overall average time taken to award a claim. But processing times on these schemes will continue to improve as appeals are worked through the system and cleared.

In summary, the prompt processing of claims is the priority for all scheme mangers. Each scheme area is continuously monitoring its processes, procedures and the organisation of work to ensure that processing capability is maximised.