Written answers
Wednesday, 10 December 2014
Department of Social Protection
Social Welfare Benefits Waiting Times
Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
50. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which backlogs have been addressed in respect of various headings and payments operated by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47339/14]
Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source
All scheme areas will have claims pending decision ‘on hand’ at any point in time, with the number of pending claims being dependent on the number of pending claims on hand at the start of a period, and the number of claims received versus the number of claims cleared during the period. The number of claims cleared in turn is largely dependent on the nature of the claims (claims requiring income assessment or assessment of medical conditions take longer to process) and the completeness of the information provided with the claim form. Therefore the fact that claims are on hand is not necessarily indicative of a backlog.
My Department measures the performance of each scheme area on a monthly basis including the measurement of the number of claims pending a decision at the end of each month. The table below shows the number of claims pending at the end of October 2013 and at the end of October 2014 for the scheme areas for which this information is available together with the total number of claims received during that period and the total number of claims in payment as at the end of October. As can be seen at the overall level, the number of claims pending a decision in my Department as a percentage of claims received during the period is 3.6% and the overall number of claims pending has reduced by 12.9% during the period.
| Type of Payment ranked by number of recipients | Recipients October 2013 | Recipients October 2014 | Claims Registered 1/11/13 to 31/10/14 | Claims Pending at 31/10/13 | Claims Pending at 31/10/14 | Pending Claims as % of claims registered | Year-on-year change in pending claims | % change in pending claims year-on-year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Travel | 781,757 | 809,155 | 7,918 | 33 | 49 | 0.6% | 16 | 48.5% |
| Child Benefit | 612,408 | 613,284 | 146,348 | 3,766 | 3,391 | 2.3% | -375 | -10.0% |
| Household Benefits | 419,828 | 413,019 | 69,141 | 2,449 | 609 | 0.9% | -1840 | -75.1% |
| State Pension (Contributory) | 326,992 | 344,566 | 40,039 | 2,355 | 2,511 | 6.3% | 156 | 6.6% |
| Living alone/Over 80/Island Allowances | 318,304 | 325,428 | 11,714 | 378 | 666 | 5.7% | 288 | 76.2% |
| Jobseeker's Allowance | 286,667 | 265,705 | 211,714 | 13,930 | 9,977 | 4.7% | -3953 | -28.4% |
| Widow/er's or Surviving Civil Partner's Contributory Pension | 117,269 | 118,403 | 7,409 | 573 | 498 | 6.7% | -75 | -13.1% |
| Disability Allowance | 104,831 | 111,301 | 19,429 | 5,162 | 6,122 | 31.5% | 960 | 18.6% |
| State Pension (Non-Contributory) | 95,759 | 95,417 | 9,011 | 2,028 | 2,038 | 22.6% | 10 | 0.5% |
| One Parent Family Payment | 78,516 | 70,317 | 12,548 | 2,815 | 1,750 | 13.9% | -1065 | -37.8% |
| Carer's Allowance | 56,907 | 58,871 | 14,574 | 2,658 | 5,049 | 34.6% | 2391 | 90.0% |
| Illness Benefit | 59,980 | 57,939 | 235,354 | 4,035 | 2,352 | 1.0% | -1683 | -41.7% |
| Invalidity Pension | 52,948 | 54,015 | 9,125 | 2,176 | 2,364 | 25.9% | 188 | 8.6% |
| Family Income Supplement | 41,989 | 49,084 | 67,098 | 4,409 | 3,141 | 4.7% | -1268 | -28.8% |
| Jobseeker's Benefit | 53,101 | 40,426 | 148,773 | 4,924 | 3,636 | 2.4% | -1288 | -26.2% |
| Treatment Benefits | 35,871 | 36,375 | 500,729 | 2,604 | 2,663 | 0.5% | 59 | 2.3% |
| Domiciliary Care Allowance | 25,442 | 27,020 | 5,323 | 553 | 998 | 18.7% | 445 | 80.5% |
| Maternity Benefit | 22,457 | 22,275 | 46,661 | 4,493 | 4,846 | 10.4% | 353 | 7.9% |
| Supplementary Welfare Allowance | 24,744 | 19,877 | 62,093 | 4,259 | 4,019 | 6.5% | -240 | -5.6% |
| Disablement Benefit | 14,199 | 12,388 | 531 | 1,664 | 1,042 | 196.2% | -622 | -37.4% |
| State Pension (Transition) | 13,441 | 3,361 | 5,466 | 1,647 | 747 | 13.7% | -900 | -54.6% |
| Carer's Benefit | 1,574 | 1,674 | 2,039 | 356 | 588 | 28.8% | 232 | 65.2% |
| Interim Illness Benefit | 350 | 361 | 13,417 | 247 | 181 | 1.3% | -66 | -26.7% |
| Other schemes (some 2014 claims pending data not yet available) | 99,537 | 167,321 | n/a | 486 | 15 | n/a | n/a | -96.9% |
| Grand Total | 3,644,871 | 3,717,582 | 1,646,454 | 68,000 | 59,252 | 3.6% | -8,277 | -12.9% |
No comments