Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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621. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if illness benefit claimants who have not received payments or who are receiving sporadic payments owing to recent internal information technology systems problems and that are experiencing financial hardship as a result will be automatically granted an exceptional needs payment; if so, if payments in such instances will be means-tested; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48070/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department transferred administration of the Illness Benefit (IB) scheme to its core Business Objects IT platform in August 2018.  Although the system change has worked effectively for over 80% of IB customers, significant difficulties arose following implementation for a number of customers.

My Department is taking three main steps to resolve the issues impacting on payments.  First, we have deployed additional staff to process the tasks and respond to the customer enquiries.  Second, we have developed some new IT routines or ‘workarounds’ that address the payment gap issues and to ensure a faster flow-through to payments.  Third, we are reviewing the design rules in the system to afford greater flexibility in processing of claims and certificates.

Payment volumes were restored to normal levels in the last two weeks and my officials are monitoring them on a daily basis to ensure that they remain at this level. Any further issues that may arise will be dealt with as they are identified. In addition to these system issues, the Department acknowledges that it did not communicate effectively with customers.  

In order to ensure that we learn from the lessons of this experience, I have arranged for an independent review into how the changes to IB were planned, implemented and – importantly – communicated to customers.  I expect this work to be completed by the end of the year. 

Any customer with an urgent financial need should make contact with the Community Welfare Service through their local Intreo Centre.

Finally, I would like to sincerely apologise again for the difficulties and frustration experienced by customers who did not receive the correct IB payment or who experienced delays in their payments over the last few weeks.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.