John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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216. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the processing times in which additional information is sought for all social welfare payments including fuel allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49934/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Whenever a claim is made for a Social Welfare payment, a Deciding Officer must have sufficient information to assess whether all of the necessary eligibility criteria for that payment have been met, as laid down in the Social Welfare Consolidation Act and/or the applicable Regulations and Guidelines.

For example, Fuel Allowance is an administrative scheme where a claimant must meet the following eligibility criteria (full details are available at ):

1.Legally resident in the State;

2.Mainly responsible for the heating of a household;

3.In receipt of a specified qualifying Social Welfare payment from my Department, or a Social Security Payment from a qualifying country;

4.Living alone or only with:

i. a qualified spouse/civil partner/cohabitant or qualified child(ren);

ii.a person in receipt of a qualifying payment who would be entitled to the allowance in their own right;

iii.a person who is receipt of Carer's Allowance or Carer's Benefit in respect of providing full time care and attention to the Fuel Allowance applicant or their qualified spouse/civil partner/cohabitant or qualified child(ren).

iv.a person receiving short term Jobseeker's Allowance or Basic SWA (less than 391 days for JA and less than 15months/456 days for BASI).

5.Unable to provide for their heating needs from the resources of their household, as shown by the results of a means test.

So, for Fuel Allowance as for most Social Welfare schemes, there are multiple eligibility criteria, each of which may require detailed interactions with the claimant in order to ensure that enough evidence is available to decide the claimant's overall eligibility.

Moreover, in many cases, and especially for means-tested schemes, a visit to the claimant by a Social Welfare Inspector is a standard part of the eligibility assessment process.

This complexity means that there is not one single category for 'additional information is sought' in my Department's computer systems, and I therefore regret that I am not in a position to provide the information requested by the Deputy.