Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein)
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43. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the steps she plans to take to ensure the delays in processing enhanced illness benefit are resolved. [5497/22]

Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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77. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the current timelines for processing the enhanced illness benefit; the percentage of these claims to date in 2022 that have been processed within seven days of application; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5424/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 43 and 77 together.

COVID Illness Benefit (Enhanced Illness Benefit) is a scheme that was introduced in March 2020, to support people who are incapable of work or who are required to self-isolate, as a result of a COVID diagnosis or being a probable source of infection. To date a total of 416,175 COVID Illness Benefit related claims have been processed of which 382,587 have received a payment.

The majority of the standard Illness Benefit claims are automatically processed once medical certification from a GP and an application from the customer has been received.

Applications for the Covid Enhanced Illness Benefit increased significantly during January due to transmission of the Omicron variant. An average of 31,300 applications were received weekly as compared to 8,000 per week in December. Despite this increase, 92% of these applications are processed within a week. Applications that require manual intervention are taking approximately 2 weeks. My Officials are working to clear all claims as quickly as possible with additional resources allocated to this work as a priority.