Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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416. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the current waiting lists for the Money Advice and Budgetary Service by area; if any areas are significantly out of line with the average; if he will explain in each case the reason they are out of line; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8357/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Money Advice and Budgeting Service ( MABS), under the aegis of the Citizens Information Board, provides a high quality personal service to assist people who are over-indebted and need help and advice in coping with debt problems, in particular those on low incomes and people living on social welfare payments.

Information and immediate support on all aspects of money management and personal debt is available from the MABS Helpline. In many cases the Helpline can provide the help and support people need. However, if a caller needs to avail of the face-to-face service provided by a MABS Money Adviser, they will be directed to a local MABS office.

There is ongoing contact with clients who are awaiting face-to-face appointment, including call-back and helpline support and the use of self-help material. In 2013, MABS also dealt with approx. 4,000 emergency clients who were seen immediately without any waiting period. Altogether, the number of new clients presenting to MABS in 2013 was 20,552.

While statistics for 2014 have not yet been compiled, initial indications are that waiting times for those services with above average waiting times in 2013 are reducing, e.g. Leitrim MABS waiting time is down to 4 weeks at end of January and Roscommon MABS is down to just over 5 weeks.

CIB continues to work with services to ensure clients are issued with notification of their first appointment immediately following an assessment stage or within five working days.

CIB is also working with those services with above average waiting times to put in place processes and practices to manage and reduce the waiting periods. This includes in some cases the temporary allocation of additional resource money advice staff to deal with waiting lists.

North Donegal MABS has experienced an increased demand for services and client waiting times at end December 2013 was an average of 26.2 weeks. CIB is working closely with the three Donegal based MABS companies to address client demand in North Donegal with a view to re-balancing of clients attending each of the services, particularly in the light of very low demand in Donegal South and West.

In addition, staff have been redeployed from outreach services to the main Letterkenny office, the full approved staffing level has been restored following a long term absence and provision for additional capacity has recently been made.

MABS operate an appointment scheduling system and this means that in some cases clients may have to wait a number of weeks for the next available appointment. While waiting for an appointment, clients can use MABS free self-help materials to take holding action and to begin the process of assessing their situation. The MABS Helpline can also support clients while they are awaiting their first appointment with a MABS money adviser.

The Money Advice and Budgeting Service is made up of a network of 53 companies which includes 51 local companies and 2 national companies, MABS ndl and National Traveller MABS. In addition, the MABS National Telephone Helpline is available from 9am to 8pm Monday to Friday and the MABS website can be accessed 24 hours a day at . In 2014 funding of some €18.6 million has been provided to MABS.

The Citizens Information Board (CIB), which has responsibility for MABS, compiles information on the waiting times in each MABS office on a quarterly basis and posts it to the website. The most recent statistics available, compiled to end of December 2013, record that the average waiting time from first point of contact to first appointment with a money adviser is some 4.5 weeks. This is a national average and can are vary greatly between offices. Details are provided by county / office area in the table below.

Sixty percent of MABS services (31 out of 51) have waiting times of 4 weeks or less and three quarters of services (39 out of 51) have waiting times of 6 weeks or less. 12 MABS services have longer waiting times.

I am satisfied that the ongoing monitoring of MABS services and the deployment of available resources to meet demand will continue to contribute to the reduction of waiting times across the MABS network of offices.

MABS Client Waiting Times & Numbers at 31 December 2013