Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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393. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he is aware that the backlog for assessing medical evidence in respect of schemes is causing significant hardship and delays to families awaiting outcomes of assessments of new claims and those supplying further medical evidence; the way in which he will address this backlog; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21926/16]

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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394. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the way in which he has resourced the team conducting the assessments of medical evidence in respect of social protection schemes; the number of full-time equivalent staff he has working on processing the medical evidence; the number of outstanding claims; the length of time for the backlogs per scheme; the delays citizens can reasonably expect when submitting medical evidence to his Department; the way in which he intends to innovate for families awaiting outcomes of assessments of new claims and those supplying further medical evidence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21927/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible and to providing a quality service to all claimants. Processing times can vary across schemes depending on the differing qualification criteria. The disability and illness related schemes require a high level of medical evidence which must be assessed by the Medical Assessors and this, together with other qualifying criteria such as means testing, can affect the processing times of claims. My Department continues to engage with general practitioners and others to clarify the medical requirements of our schemes so that adequate information may be provided with the initial claim.

This increases the likelihood of an eligible initial decision and therefore reduces the need for further evidence to be submitted for review at a later stage.

My Department has 27 Medical Assessors (MAs) including the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer (DCMO). Due to work-sharing, the full-time equivalent number of Medical Assessors currently serving is 23.5 including the Chief Medical Officer and the Deputy Chief Medical Officer. The delay in processing medical assessments is due to a number of factors including the increase in volume of customer claims to particular schemes and the time involved in assessing cases where there is lengthy medical evidence to be considered. Current Medical Assessor resources are focused on ensuring that claims for the various disability and illness schemes are prioritised above other work until the backlog is eliminated.

My Department is also addressing the issue by ensuring that there are sufficient Medical Assessors available to provide a quality customer service. The Department has engaged with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (D/PER) and completed a recruitment competition through the Public Appointment Service (PAS) for the recruitment of new Medical Assessors. Appointments from this competition and from the previous panel are being offered at the moment. My Department intends to conduct a further recruitment competition later in 2016.

Since May 2016, my Department has introduced new workflow monitoring and management processes to improve the efficiency of its Medical Assessors. This is reflected in the attached figures which show a reduction in claims pending medical assessment between 30 April 2016 and 30 June 2016. Table 2 lists the number of people awaiting medical assessment at claim (2a) and review (2b) at the end of each of the last three months.

Table 2(a)

Claims Awaiting Medical Assessment

As of 30/6/2016 there were an additional 496 claims for Disablement Benefit awaiting desk or in-person assessment.

Table 2(b)

Customer Request or Control Review (Further Medical Evidence) Awaiting Desk Medical Assessment

As of 30/6/2016 there were an additional 53 reviews for Disablement Benefit awaiting desk or in-person assessment.