Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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266. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the current waiting time for the processing of child benefit; and the number of applications currently waiting to be processed. [48946/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Child benefit is the principal way the State assists families with the costs of raising children. It is paid in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years, or to the age of 18 in respect of children who are in full-time education or who have a disability.

There are currently 1,874 undecided Child Benefit claims on hand, 1,771 of those claims have been received in the last three weeks. The average processing time for a Child Benefit claim is 2 to 3 weeks. Processing times have remained constant at 2 to 3 weeks throughout 2021.

The restoration of birth registration services following the recent cyber attack on the HSE has resulted in the Department dealing with a higher number of claims than normal in recent months. The processing of the delayed birth registrations is prioritised by the Department as soon as they are received. Any arrears of payments due on claims is included with the first payment of Child Benefit.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.