Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

20. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection for an update on the performance of processing ‘hubs’ for community welfare and other services; whether her Department has any plans for creating similar hubs for other social protection payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [37674/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Community Welfare Service 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. It is a key service providing Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance payments, Additional Needs Payments, Rent and other supplement applications. Approximately 16,900 claims handled during the month of August.

To deal efficiently with the volume of claims being received and to ensure a consistent level of service, local Community Welfare Officers (CWOs) are supported by a network of national administration support teams based in seven ‘hubs’ located around the country. These ‘hubs’ take-on routine administrative tasks associated with claim processing which frees up front-line CWOs to deal directly with clients and their claims and allows them to respond to any other events or incidents that arise. These measures show the clear commitment by my Department to support customers.

The Community Welfare Service support hubs continue to play a vital role in the response to priority projects, including dealing with New Accommodation Kit Outs and funeral assistance claims, supporting people arriving from Ukraine, and dealing with the ongoing increase in international protection applicants.

There are no delays in any of the support hubs and all claims received into a hub are made ready for decision as quickly as possible and returned to the local based CWO within a short time for decision. There are no backlogs and work on hand is within normal CWS processing levels. Where the required claim application forms and documentation are supplied, claims are sent to local CWOs on the same day. Where it has been identified that a person has an urgent or immediate need, regardless of whether they have provided all the required documentation, these claims are referred immediately to a CWO. The hubs play a very important part in ensuring that decisions on entitlement are made without delay.

There are currently no plans in my department to create any other similar hubs for other social protection payments.

I trust this clarifies the matter.