John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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279. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to review the operation of the domiciliary care allowance scheme (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30324/17]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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As the Deputy will be aware, the domiciliary care allowance (DCA) scheme transferred to the Department of Social Protection in 2009, at which point some 24,000 children were in receipt of the allowance. This figure has risen every year since and now stands at just under 36,000, with 60% of parents also getting carers allowance in respect of their child. All parents in receipt of DCA also receive the annual carers support grant in June each year. Recently, eligibility to the medical card was extended to all children in receipt of the allowance.

A review of the operation of the DCA scheme was undertaken in 2012, and lead to the introduction of a revised application process with a revised application form which has increased the percentage of applications that are awarded initially to over 75%, significantly more than before the application processes were revised in 2013. Eligibility can be more easily established if the application form is fully completed and any supporting documentation is provided with the initial application. The numbers of applications referred to the Social Welfare Appeals Office has reduced in recent years and while the percentage allowed on appeal is significant, this is due in many cases to new information being presented at appeal which was not previously available.

Processing times for DCA are currently not meeting the target of having 70% of applications processed within 15 weeks. Currently it is taking up to 18 weeks on average to finalise an application. This is due to a number of factors.

First, there has been a significant increase in the volume of applications. The numbers applying for DCA have doubled since 2010, when the Department took over administration of the scheme from the HSE. The increase in volume over recent years has been consistently in the 15-20% range per annum.

Secondly, following a high court ruling in 2016, there is now a need for the Department’s medical assessors to provide the deciding officer with a more detailed opinion on the child’s eligibility for the scheme and for the deciding officer in turn to provide more detailed reasons for their decision when communicating this to the customer. These factors have resulted in the time taken to finalise applications increasing significantly and as a result the numbers being processed have reduced and the timescale to finalise each application has increased.

In response to the current situation, additional deciding officers are being assigned to the scheme and will take up their positions shortly. Once these extra resources are in situ and operational, the extra processing capacity should allow for an improvement in processing times.

This matter is being kept under ongoing review.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.