Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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427. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average time for processing additional needs payment applications in County Tipperary in each of the years 2019 to 2021 and to date in 2022. [62238/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Community Welfare Service (CWS) is committed to providing a quality service to all citizens, ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.

In general, most Additional Needs Payment (ANP) applications are processed within four weeks.

If an application is urgent, every effort is made to ensure the person receives a payment on the same day. Community Welfare Officers (CWOs) are very experienced and can generally assess when a case is so urgent as to require an immediate response. Approximately 9% of Community Welfare Services (CWS) payments to customers across the country are made on this basis, which shows just how responsive the service is to an urgent customer need.

Applications which take longer than four weeks, usually relate to cases where additional information or documentation has been requested from the applicant confirming the essential nature of the expense or the person’s inability to cover the expense from their normal income. This can result in longer processing times for these applications as greater flexibility is given to clients with extended time to respond. Upon receipt of this information, the application will then be processed quickly.

My Department has taken a number of steps to simplify and streamline the ANP application process:

- There is a full-time CWO presence in 50 Intreo Centres nationwide, 9am – 5pm, Monday to Friday in line with my continuing commitment to a service which has local engagement with local clients as its cornerstone.

- A person does not have to attend an office to make a claim. If it is more convenient for them, they can speak directly with a CWO when they call the CWS freephone line. People who have never been to a CWO before find this very useful.

- Of course, in addition, CWOs attend clinics in other locations, deal with people over the phone and where needed, arrange to visit a person’s house by appointment.

- As part of the Budget estimate, I secured agreement for some 74 additional staff to be assigned to the CWS. Recruitment has commenced and it is anticipated that they will be in place by Q1 2023. In the interim, until the staff have been recruited, 30 Social Welfare Inspectors have been temporarily reassigned to the Community Welfare Service since the start of November to assist with claims processing.

The number of applications for ANPs has slowed in recent weeks. This can likely be attributed to the €1.2 billion which has been paid out under the eight lump sum payments since the Budget.

The average processing time for ANPs in the years 2019 to 2021 is not available.

I trust this clarifies the matter.