Vol. 412 No. 1
97 Mr. Ferris asked the Minister for Social Welfare whether any applicant has to wait five months for a social welfare officer to investigate an application for unemployment assistance; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
As the Deputy is no doubt aware, I am conscious of the need for my Department to deliver a speedy and efficient service to their customers. Since the setting up of the social welfare services office, I have implemented new procedures to bring about a continuous improvement in this service.
I have introduced desk interviews for applicants to unemployment assistance on a countrywide basis, to shorten the time taken to process their claims. As an extension of this, I have developed the decision making process on these claims to the local employment exchanges rather than having all cases referred to headquarters. In some cases, where the customer obviously has no means, there is no referral to the social welfare officer for investigation. In addition, I am extending the computer network throughout the country to help local officials to make more speedy decisions on entitlements. In the last few weeks I have appointed regional managers to put new structures in place including a localised service and to extend the one-stop-shop concept which I introduced some years ago.
As a result there are now much fewer cases in which there are significant delays. My Department's experience has been that significant delays are usually attributable to some failure on the part of the customer to provide essential information. I am not aware of any case in which the customer has been co-operative and in which there has been a delay of five months by a social welfare officer. If the Deputy is prepared to give me details of any such case, I will have immediate inquiries made in the matter.
