Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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470. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the current average length of time for a family income supplement application to be processed in her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23303/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.

In the case of Family Income Supplement (FIS) the Department has been working to build an awareness of the scheme through its engagement with employers and jobseekers and through the use of its website and the network of Citizen’s Information Centres. Against this back-drop the level of new claims has increased by over 10% in the first quarter of 2014, compared to the same period last year, with the average processing time for new FIS applications at the end of the first quarter of 2014 running at 4 weeks.

FIS renewal applicants are invited to re-apply 8 weeks in advance of the expiry of their claims. The vast majority of renewal applications are processed in advance of the expiry of their current payment to ensure continuity of payment, provided that customers return completed application forms in a timely manner.

There processing of FIS applications are continually monitoring to ensure that processing methods are as efficient as possible and that there are sufficient resources in place to deal with increasing application levels.