Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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11. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she will report on the length of time that an applicant for a carer's allowance and-or a carer's benefit must currently wait for receipt of a payment; the reasons for this delay; the measures she will take to shorten this time in view of the hardship caused by the delay; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33040/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Carers receive significant income supports from the Department - among the highest rates of income support in Europe. The income disregard and means test for carers is the most generous within the social welfare system. Furthermore, the respite care grant is paid to carers with no requirement to satisfy a means test.

A total of €822 million is provided for carers payments in 2015. Carers Allowance is the main income support. Since 2004 the number of people in receipt of carer’s allowance has increased from over 23,000, to just over 58,000 at the end of August this year - an increase in excess of 150%.

The average time taken to award a new carer’s allowance application is currently 17 weeks and for carer’s benefit it is 10 weeks.Processing times for these schemes have risen somewhat recently. The main driver of this increase is the significant surge in new carer’s allowance applications - an increase of 18% in 2014 over 2013 and a further increase of 6% in 2015 over the same period in 2014.

Additional resources to ensure that this average time is reduced over the remainder of 2015 have now been deployed.In addition, applicants are encouraged to complete the application form fully and attach all the supporting documentation in order to minimise processing times generally,

I can assure the Deputy that the department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible and each scheme area is continuously monitored and reviewed to ensure customers are responded to as quickly as possible.