Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
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1057. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of applications being processed for carer's allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44990/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.

Carer's Allowance (CA) is a means-tested payment, made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that they require that level of care. An increased payment can be made where full-time care is being provided to two people.

At the end of September 2018 there were 5,836 applications awaiting decision and the average waiting time for new CA application was 17 weeks.

Additional staff have recently been reassigned to the CA area to work on claims processing and this should lead to a reduction in processing times.

Before a decision can be made on entitlement CA, evidence must be provided in respect of the care recipient’s habitual residence in the State, the level of care the carer provided, the carer’s means and that the person being cared for has such a disability that they require full-time care and attention.

In general, social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions can take longer to process. This is compounded if the documentary evidence provided at initial application stage is incomplete or insufficient; this is sometimes the case with carer’s allowance applications.

The Department recently launched a re-designed CA application form. The new form includes a Care Report section which has been arrived at through consultation between officials and medical assessors of my Department and representatives and members of Family Carers Ireland. It is expected that the new form will allow carers to provide more information on the type and level of care they provide, with an aim to providing Deciding Officers with the information they need to expedite decisions on entitlement.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.