Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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57. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will account for the high turnover rate of medical assessors in her Department; if her attention has been drawn to the fact that there are significant problems in processing fresh claims and appeals due to insufficient resources being allocated towards the area; if her attention has been drawn to the ongoing problems with the standard forms which general practitioners and consultants must complete in respect of certain claims and the unnecessary delays that are being created as a result; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43388/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department is committed to ensuring that claims and appeals are processed as expeditiously as possible. There are currently 20 Medical Assessors, including the Chief Medical Adviser and the Deputy Chief Medical Adviser, employed by the Department. Due to the retirement of several Medical Assessors in recent years a number of vacancies have arisen. In response, the Department in conjunction with the Public Appointment Service (PAS) ran a competition in 2012 to recruit replacement/additional Medical Assessors. Four Medical Assessors appointed from that competition are currently employed with a further Medical Assessor due to commence work this month. The Department has continued to liaise with the PAS with a view to filling these critical vacancies. A further competition was advertised on 13 September 2013 inviting suitably qualified candidates to apply for the position of Medical Assessor in the Department and interviews are due to take place shortly. This competition is one of a number of options that the Department is currently exploring in order to increase its capacity to carry out medical assessments and reviews of its illness/disability/caring schemes thus enabling the Department to deliver a quality service to our customers. The Department’s disability and illness related schemes require a high level of medical evidence which must be assessed by the Medical Assessors and this, together with other qualifying criteria such as means testing for Disability Allowance and Carer’s Allowance and PRSI contributions for Invalidity Pension, can affect the processing times of claims. There has also been an increase in volume of customer claims to particular schemes. Despite this, there have been significant improvements from 2012 in the waiting times for assessment by the Medical Assessors across all the illness related schemes. Furthermore, the processing backlogs have been eliminated across all the illness related schemes except for Disability allowance which is currently being cleared. Claims, appeals and any urgent cases (medical/social reasons) are dealt with on a priority basis. It is the policy of the Department to standardise and simplify its application forms as much as possible. However, the design and layout of application forms must also have regard to the particular requirements of individual schemes. Application forms are reviewed on a regular basis including those parts of forms that relate to the provision of medical evidence. The design of the medical elements of application forms is undertaken in consultation with the Department’s Chief Medical Adviser and Deputy Chief Medical Adviser.