Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 13 October 2022
3. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide an update on the processing of additional needs payment applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50417/22]
View answerWill the Minister provide an update on the processing of additional needs payments? These are very important in the midst of the cost-of-living crisis. I presume demand will increase and I am sure the Department expects demand to increase further as we come into the winter period.
I thank the Deputy for raising this. Additional needs payments are intended to assist people with essential once-off exceptional expenditure that a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. In 2022 to the end of September almost 66,000 applications for additional needs payments were processed and awarded. This is an increase of just under 60% on 2021 figures. This rise in the number of applications reflects in part the positive measures the Department has implemented, including two major advertising campaigns to increase awareness of the payments.
In the region of 63% of all applications are being finalised within four weeks. As part of the decision process there is a need to verify household income and expenditure and assess whether the expenditure in respect of which the additional needs payment is requested is essential. Where an application is complete and accompanied by the required documentation it is generally processed in a matter of days. However, when an application is not finalised within this timeframe the delay is generally due to additional information or documentation being requested from the person to support the application. It is important to note that where my officials are aware that a client has an urgent or immediate need every effort is made to ensure the person in question receives a prompt service, usually on the same day.
The Department has taken a number of steps to increase service capacity, including the introduction of a national community welfare service freephone line. This means clients do not have to attend an office in person to make a claim. It has rostered staff to ensure there is a full-time community welfare officer present in all of our 50 offices nationwide. It has established a back office support team to take on the more routine administrative tasks associated with claim processing. This means front-line staff can be freed up and it allows community welfare officers to deal directly with customers and their claims. In addition, the Department is well advanced on the development of an online claim option.
I am glad to hear the online option is been progressed. This will be important. It is something I have raised with the Minister previously. It would be welcome because it may allow a person to ensure every bit of information is uploaded and provided before an application is submitted. There would then not be an over and back between the Department and the applicant. In September I was alarmed when I was advised that at that point 95% of applications were being processed within five to eight weeks. That is far too long. It is welcome to hear that 63% of applications are being processed within four weeks. Obviously the times have improved and I welcome this but we are still looking at another 37% that are not processed within four weeks. Four weeks is a long time to wait if people have a bill or need to replace something in their homes.
I have raised with the Minister many times the issue of community welfare officers. I understand they are in Intreo centres which can be a number of miles away from people living in rural areas. Recently the local family resource centre raised with me the issue of domestic violence survivors. People in these situations are very vulnerable with regard to getting to an Intreo centre and do not have the option of walking into a local service to see a community welfare officer as they were able to previously.
If somebody has an urgent need they will be seen as a matter of urgency and immediately.
In some cases, a same-day or next-day payment can be provided. Only a few months ago, the Deputy asked me about the fall-off in these payments. At that stage, she said we were not doing enough to promote the payments and that not enough people knew about it. It is sort of the opposite now. The Deputy is telling me that too many people are applying and that we cannot keep up. Just to be clear, I want people who need these payments to get them because that is what they are there for. Earlier this year, I made a number of changes to try to simplify the process and make it easier for people. We set up a national helpline phone number. We developed new income guidelines aligned with those of the working family payment and put them on our website. We got rid of the 30-hour rule and ran two major public awareness campaigns. There were radio and social media adverts constantly airing to raise awareness and get the message out, which I am sure the Deputy heard. That campaign and those changes have had the effect we wanted. More people are aware of the payment and more are applying. That is what we are here to do; we are here to help.
To be fair, I do not think that is very fair. What I wanted to see was the ramping up of those supports to ensure that people knew they were there in order to access them. Of course, if numbers were low earlier in the year, such as in February and March when they were between 4,000 or 5,000, there was concern. The Department did all that work on advertising and campaigning. That is what I wanted to see and that is welcome, but when ramping things up, demand will obviously increase, and we need to make sure people are not waiting up to eight weeks for a payment, which they were in September. People have waited two months. Some 95% of applications in September were finalised between five to eight weeks. That is my issue. It is a fair issue to raise because if the Minister is encouraging people to apply for a payment, which I have asked her to do and I have no issue with, people must get that support in a timely manner. These are supposed to be emergency payments and it is fair of me to raise this with her. I put forward the idea of putting the process online not to complain about the fall-off, but to ensure people had every opportunity to access the support.
A comprehensive review was undertaken in 2021 of all services and activities delivered by the Department's network of local offices, which came as news to me. Will that review be published?
When you get all the information in an application straight away, it can be dealt with very fast, which the Deputy will appreciate. Where additional information is needed, we know it holds things up a bit. It is taxpayers' money. We just cannot throw it out there. We must have some checks and balances. If they were dragging their heels, you would not see the huge increase in awarded payments that we have seen. If additional staffing resources are needed, my Department will not be found wanting. During the pandemic, we moved staff around to meet demand when there are pressures in certain areas. We have community welfare officers in 51 Intreo centres across the country. They can talk to people over the phone, meet people in the local branch, and they can even arrange to meet people in their own home by appointment if that is needed. As stated, we are looking at setting up the online system so people can apply directly for an additional needs payment. In fairness to the staff and community welfare officers in the Department of Social Protection, they certainly did not let us down during the pandemic and they are not going to let us down now either, because they want to help people and that is what they are here for.
