Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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1182. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the status of a domiciliary care allowance application by a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33586/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who has decided to convene an oral hearing in this case.

Every effort will be made to hear the case as quickly as possible and the appellant will be informed when arrangements for the oral hearing have been made.

The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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1183. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the status of a claim for FIS by a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33593/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The person concerned made an application for Family Income Supplement (FIS) on 27thMarch 2017. At the time of application, the person concerned had a One Parent Family Payment (OFP) claim pending and FIS could not proceed with assessment until a decision was made on the OFP claim.

OFP was awarded to the claimant on 6thApril 2017 and the Deciding Officer (DO) proceeded with assessment of the FIS application. During the FIS assessment, it was noted by the DO that the applicant provided one payslip with the application. However, FIS could not be awarded to the person concerned as the information on the payslip indicated the applicant may not have worked the required number of hours in order to qualify.

The DO wrote to the customer on 6thApril 2017 and requested all payslips for February and March 2017 in order to get a more accurate account of the claimant’s work pattern.

The person concerned forwarded 5 payslips dating from 30th April 2017 to 11th June 2017 on 16thJune 2017 which was not the requested information from the DO. However, the DO accepted the information from the applicant and proceeded with a further assessment of the FIS claim.

On 21st June 2017, FIS was refused to the person concerned as the number of hours worked were less than 38 hours per fortnight as per the Gross to Date (GTD) figures on the payslip of 4thJune 2017.

The DO has now requested a schedule of hours or all payslips from January 2017 to date from the person concerned and when this information is received, a review of the claimant’s FIS will take place without delay.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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1184. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the status of a domiciliary care application by a person (details supplied). [33635/17]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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The Department is currently experiencing delays in the processing of Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) claims. We are extremely sorry for any worry or concern this may cause to parents/guardians of children with additional care needs. At present it is taking 20 weeks on average to finalise an application. Applications are processed in date of receipt order. There are a number of factors that have contributed to the extended time required to process claims;

First, there is a significant increase in the volume of applications being received. The numbers applying for DCA have increased significantly since 2009, when the Department took over administration of the scheme from the HSE. The year on year increase in volumes over recent years has consistently been in the 15-20% range due to an increase in population and more awareness of the scheme. Over 1,000 claims were received in May, along with a further 700 in June; whereas the average would have been 400 per month a few years ago.

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.

Corrective actions are being taken, with additional deciding officers assigned to work on the scheme. Once these deciding officers become fully operational, the increase in claim processing capacity should allow for an improvement in processing times.

An application for DCA was received from this gentleman on the 17th of February 2017. The application will be considered by a Deciding Officer and the decision notified to him as soon as possible.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.