Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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255. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if his attention has been drawn to the delays of up to a month for maternity benefit payments; the reason for such delays; the number of persons affected; his plans to resolve this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22831/17]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Currently there are 2,850 claims for Maternity Benefit waiting to be processed. Some 1,450 of these have a maternity leave commencement date of 15 May or earlier. Maternity Benefit claims are processed in leave commencement date order. The average time to process a paper claim is 6 weeks. Processing claims by leave commencement date order ensures that those whose maternity leave is impending or has already started receive priority. Once a decision is made and the claim has been awarded and where the leave has already commenced, payment issues on the following Monday and this payment will also include any arrears due to the customer at that point.

To alleviate delays, additional staff have been assigned and staff are working overtime. Further additional staff have been assigned this week and will commence processing claims immediately. I want to assure customers that every effort is being made to ensure all claims are processed as quickly as possible.

The Department also facilitates online applications for Maternity Benefit and an automated decision is made where the applicant submits all necessary information and where the detail provided can be validated. I would ask the Deputy to encourage woman who are planning maternity leave to use this channel if possible as it provides the most effective method of applying for Maternity Benefit.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.