asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will allow community welfare officers to issue temporary qualification certificates for unemployment assistance in an effort to speed up the whole process of means testing and thus reduce the delays that claimants are experiencing.
Written Answers. - Temporary Qualification Certificate.
28.
The amount of unemployment assistance payable is dependent on the means of the claimant and individual investigation of means must be made in each case. The means in each case are determined by a statutorily appointed deciding officer. The time taken to carry out a means investigation and reach a decision in any particular case depends to a large extent on the individual circumstances of the case.
In cases where significant delays occur, this is usually because it is necessary in those cases to obtain documentary evidence of items which are assessed as means, for example a bank statement, or it is necessary for the social welfare officer to visit the claimant's home to accurately investigate his means. In cases where there are "nil" means involved the claims are generally processed within two weeks.
My Department are making every effort to reduce delays in putting unemployment assistance claims into payment. In this context a number of very important changes have been made which have helped to reduce delays.
First, the policy of awarding qualification certificates at head office entailed an element of delay and in order to eliminate this it was decided to devolve the task of awarding qualification certificates to deciding officers at employment exchanges. This process involved training of officers at local office level and rapid progress has been made. In fact the majority of exchanges are now making all decisions on means assessment and by the end of this year I envisage all exchanges to be making such decisions.
A further measure, which we call Interim UA, has also been introduced to provide a better and quicker service to the claimant. This scheme applies to single persons living with their parents whose sole source of income is from social welfare payments or health board payments, and also to married persons coming off unemployment benefit where their spouses are not working. In eligible cases a qualification certificate is awarded immediately and only a random sample of cases is sent to the social welfare officer for investigation.
I would also like to refer to a most important development which has occurred recently as part of the concept of the one stop shop. This is a measure under which social welfare officers, where possible, attend at the local office two or three times weekly to interview new unemployment assistance claimants and thereby avoid to the greatest extent possible the need for visits to the claimants' homes. In many cases this enables payment to be made in these cases in the week following the claim. This arrangement, which is now in operation at many of the local offices throughout the country, significantly reduces the role of supplementary welfare allowance as an interim payment and saves the claimant from undergoing two separate means tests.
I am satisfied that the measures outlined, when fully implemented at all offices, will result in a considerable reduction in the amount of time taken to award qualification certificates and to put unemployment assistance into payment. Therefore, I do not consider it appropriate at this stage to extend to community welfare officers the power to award qualification certificates. However, I can assure the Deputy that I am closely monitoring the arrangements for the investigation of means and will make any further amendments considered necessary to ensure that delays are kept to an absolute minimum.