Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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88. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the length of time it takes for a file to be transferred from the family income supplement section to the appeals section, due to the backlog being experienced there; the length of time this volume of work is building up; the measures being taken to address this backlog; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27477/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Family income supplement (FIS) is designed to provide support for employees on low earnings with families.

All first-time new FIS claims continue to be processed promptly on receipt with renewal applications being dealt with in advance of the expiry of their current payment.

If an applicant is dissatisfied with a decision on their entitlement to FIS they can appeal against it to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office.

In the first instance the Social Welfare Appeals Office refer the case back to FIS section for clarification. If the applicant remains dissatisfied with the outcome after clarification they can progress to full appeal.

In recent months the priority has been to process new FIS applications particularly those claiming on foot of recent changes to the One Parent Family payment. Consequently there is some with clarification requests. However additional resources will be assigned to deal with clarification requests over the coming weeks, in order to bring it up to date.

Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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89. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the length of time it takes for a file (details supplied) to be transferred from the family income supplement section to the appeals section, due to the backlog being experienced there; the measures being taken to address the backlog; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27478/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Family income supplement (FIS) is designed to provide support for employees on low earnings with families.

To qualify for payment of FIS, a person must be engaged in full time paid employment as an employee which is expected to last for at least 3 months and be working for a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight or 19 hours per week.

The person concerned applied to have her FIS renewed from November 2014. When her application was being examined it came to light that she may not have been working the required number of hours to qualify. At the time further information regarding the hours that she was working was sought both from the applicant and her employer.

The complete information required was furnished by the end of February 2015 and a decision on her entitlement was then given immediately. Unfortunately she didn’t qualify for FIS as it was deemed, based on the information provided, that she was working less than the required hours.

She subsequently wrote to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office in March 2015, to appeal this decision and her case was referred to FIS section for clarification in the first instance.

Her case has now been re-examined by a deciding officer. The last information supplied by the employer of the person concerned indicates that she worked the required hours in only 2 out of 6 weeks. In order to establish the most up to date position she has been requested to provide full details of hours worked from the beginning of the year. When this information is received her entitlement will be further considered and she will be notified directly of the outcome.

All first-time FIS claims continue to be processed promptly on receipt with renewal applications being dealt with in advance of the expiry of their current payment.

If an applicant is dissatisfied with a decision on their entitlement to FIS they can appeal against it to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office. In the first instance the Social Welfare Appeals Office refer the case back to FIS section for clarification. If the applicant remains dissatisfied with the outcome after clarification they can progress to full appeal.

In recent months the priority has been to process new FIS applications particularly those claiming on foot of recent changes to the One Parent Family payment. Consequently there is some with clarification requests. However additional resources will be assigned to deal with clarification requests over the coming weeks, in order to bring it up to date.