Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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310. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to the backlog of claims for disability allowance; if her Department is allocating any additional resources to deal with this backlog; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49877/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that Disability Allowance (DA) applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.

DA has a number of complex qualifying conditions and can take longer to process. Before a decision can be made on an entitlement to DA, evidence must be provided in respect of the person’s medical condition, the extent to which it restricts them from taking up employment, their means and their habitual residency.

The target processing time for the DA scheme is to award 75% of applications within 10 weeks. ?Currently the average waiting time to award for new DA applications is 10 weeks and the average for the year to date is 10 weeks. My Department understands the many pressures faced by people and always seeks to ensure that claims and requests on existing payments are processed quickly and efficiently.

I wish to reassure the Deputy that claim processing is kept under active review, with all possible steps taken to improve processing times.? This includes the assignment of additional resources, where available, and the review of business processes, to ensure the efficient processing of applications.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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311. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reasons an application for carer's allowance was refused in the case of a person (details supplied); the degree to which the person was over the income limits for carer's allowance; if the application can be reviewed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49890/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care.

An application for CA was received from the person concerned on 20 July 2023.

It is a condition for receipt of a CA that the person being cared for must have such disability that they require full-time care and attention.

Full time care and attention is defined as requiring from another person, continual supervision, and frequent assistance throughout the day in connection with normal bodily functions or continual supervision in order to avoid danger to him or herself and likely to require that level of care for at least twelve months.

The evidence submitted in support of the application was examined and the deciding officer decided that this evidence did not indicate that the requirement for full-time care and attention was satisfied.

It is also a condition for receipt of CA that the applicant’s means are less than the statutory limit, which in this case is €275.10 weekly.

Means are any income belonging to the carer and their spouse / civil partner / cohabitant, property, (except their own home) or an asset that could bring in money or provide them with an income, for example occupational pensions, or pensions or benefits from another country.

The means disregard for a single household is €350.00. Following the means calculations and application of relevant disregards, the person concerned was found to have means in excess of the statutory means limit. The carer’s means were assessed at €452.09 per week which is in excess of the statutory means limit of €275.10 in this case.

The application for CA was disallowed as the means of the person concerned were determined to exceed the statutory limit and the requirement for full time care and attention was not satisfied.

The person concerned was notified on 14 September 2023 of this decision, the reasons for it and of their right of review and appeal.

The person concerned requested a review of this decision and submitted additional evidence in support of their application.

Following this review, the decision has remained unchanged.

The person concerned was notified on 21 October 2023 of this decision, the reasons for it and of their right of review and appeal.

The Department was notified that the person concerned had appealed this decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO). The file in this case was forwarded to the SWAO on 24 October 2023 for determination.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.