Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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951. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason there are significant delays in processing applications such as the disability allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7525/20]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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Disability allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance for people with a disability aged between 16 and 66 with a disability which is expected to last for at least one year and who satisfy the medical condition, means test and are habitually resident in Ireland.

There is no delay with processing Disability allowance claims. The target processing time for DA is to process 75% of new claims within 12 weeks. In April 2020, 88% of applications were completed within the expected timeframe. The average time taken to award a DA claim was 7 weeks.

My department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible. The DA scheme area is continuously monitored and reviewed to ensure applications are processed and customers are responded to as quickly as possible.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.