John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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253. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of desk based assessments of entitlements further to reviews of his Department's schemes; the number of direct inquiries with social welfare recipients; the number of site and employer visits; the number of face-to-face interviews conducted in 2016; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22819/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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My Department administers over 70 schemes and services. It processes in excess of 1.7 million applications per annum; issues 81 million payments per year to 2.1 million customers and their families and provides over 300,000 direct engagements in support of labour market participation.

Staff in the Department are engaged with customers throughout the entire lifecycle of their claim, including on regular reviews for all schemes on an ongoing basis. Reviews vary from desk assessments to written and verbal enquiries, site and employer visits and face to face interviews with customers depending on the nature of the review.

In order to deliver our services effectively staff may engage with each and every customer multiple times in various ways over the course of their claim.

It is not possible to give a definitive breakdown of the numbers of interactions which take place between staff and customers, given the range of services and activities carried out by Departmental staff across the schemes.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.