Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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103. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the processing times for carer's allowance and carer's benefit applications; the reason for the backlog of applications; her plans to address same; if additional staff will be allocated in order to clear same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [46875/18]

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.

Carer's Benefit (CARB) is a PRSI based payment made to a person who leaves the workforce to care for a child or an adult in need of full-time care and attention. An increased payment can be made on both schemes where full-time care is being provided to two people.

Currently the average time taken to process new CA applications is 17 weeks and the average time taken to process new CARB applications is 14 weeks.

The principal reason for the length of time taken to process applications is the growth in recent years in the number of applications received.

It is also the case that social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions can take longer to process. In addition, the documentary evidence provided at initial application stage can sometimes be incomplete or insufficient and this can contribute to the time taken to process applications.

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

Before a decision can be made on entitlement to CARB, a person has to show that they have the required level of PRSI contributions, that they were in full-time remunerative employment and that they have left that employment or reduced their hours of employment to no more than 15 hours per week outside their home, that they are providing full-time care and attention and that the person being cared for has such a disability that they require full-time care and attention.

The Department recently launched a re-designed CA application form which includes a new 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. This new form allows 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. It is planned to incorporate this new Care Report into the CARB application form in the coming months.

Also, additional staff have also recently been reassigned to the carers' payments area to work on claims processing and this should lead to a reduction in processing times.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.