Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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193. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which backlogs have been addressed in respect of various headings and payments operated by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12047/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible. Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of illness, disability and caring schemes, can take longer to process. Similarly, means-tested payments can also require more detailed investigation and interaction with the applicant, thereby lengthening the decision making process. Delays can also arise when the application form is not competed fully or supporting documentation is not provided at claim stage; if information is required from social security organisations in other jurisdictions and where additional information has been requested from the applicant but remains outstanding.

For example, pension claims on hand for more than three months typically occur in the case of EU/bilateral pensions where information from other jurisdictions is awaited or, in the case of self-employed, there may be outstanding PRSI liabilities. These delays impact on the award of household benefits in many cases as these secondary payments are linked to the award of the primary benefit.

My Department’s Intreo service integrates employment and income supports and provides for a streamlined and personalised service to clients in accessing job opportunities and availing of supports to enable them to get back to work at the earliest possible opportunity. The Intreo centres also include a single integrated decision-making team that integrate and streamline the processes formerly undertaken by the different agencies now amalgamated into my Department. Already clients are seeing the benefits of the integrated decisions process in the form of shorter decision times and in the reduced recourse to supplementary welfare payments.

There is no backlog in family income supplement (FIS), new claims are processed promptly within 2/3 weeks and renewals are processed in advance of the previous claim period ending.

Treatment benefit is also processed without delay, usually within 1 to 1.5 weeks of receipt.

Both carer’s allowance and disability allowance, which are means-tested schemes, are experiencing some delays presently. Delays are also occurring in domiciliary care allowance. This primarily is due to an ongoing increase in new claim intake over the past few years to all three of these schemes and the complexity attached to processing of these applications. In addition, there is sometimes a reluctance on the part of applicants to give full information at application stage thereby slowing down the processing of their application and in some cases necessitating a visit by an departmental investigative officer.

Reducing these waiting times is a priority for my Department. As part of its programme of service delivery modernisation, a range of initiatives aimed at streamlining the processing of claims, supported by modern technology, have been implemented by my Department in recent years. Operational processes, procedures and the organisation of work are continually reviewed to ensure that processing capability is maximised.

In addition, staffing needs are regularly reviewed, having regard to workloads and the competing demands arising, to ensure that the best use is made of all available resources.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.