Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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45. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she has evaluated the number of applicants that have to wait a week or longer for a face-to-face appointment to make a claim for social protection support; how this impacts on her customer service charter; the provision she has made for customers that require support in the interim period; the policy changes that drive this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7497/16]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Since 2012, the rollout of the new Intreo service delivery model has meant that customers should no longer be experiencing a delay in obtaining an appointment for one of our schemes.

When applying for a jobseeker’s payment or a one parent family payment, customers merely present at the integrated reception of their local Intreo Centre and are given the relevant application forms and an early appointment date. They are also informed if any additional supporting information is required.

Provided that the customer presents at his/her appointment with the relevant forms completed and any other requested material, then there would normally not be any undue delay in putting the claim into payment.

Jobseekers benefit claims are actually decided, on average, in just one week. For jobseekers allowance, claims are decided, on average in two weeks. For one parent family payment claims, the average is 6 weeks to award, reflecting the complexity of this payment and the requirement to provide more detailed information.

Historically, where there were delays in processing primary claims, then supplementary welfare allowance payments could be made to customers in the interim period pending award. However, with the improved processing times delivered by the Intreo process, the overall number of supplementary welfare applications pending jobseekers claims has significantly reduced, as an early decision on the primary claims has negated the need for such applications.

The Intreo process is in line with the Department’s Customer Service Charter.