Vol. 548 No. 2
339 Ms Clune asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the reason for the length of time his Department takes to award a widow's pension in view of the fact that many could be without a payment in this period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4781/02]
My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are issued expeditiously, having regard to the eligibility conditions which must be satisfied. Where the deceased person had been in receipt of a social welfare payment, the surviving spouse is entitled to receive that payment for a six weeks period after the death of their spouse. In these cases, entitlement to widow or widower's pension commences from the seventh week. This provision insures continuity of payment in the period following the death of the spouse. A bereavement grant of €635, £500, is also payable in these circumstances. This payment is issued automatically by cheque to the survivor on contributory based schemes, once the death is notified. A widowed parent grant is also issued automatically where there are dependent children and it is currently paid at the rate of €2,500, £1,969.
Where the widowed person was the spouse of a recipient of retirement or old age contributory pension, the legislation provides for an automatic entitlement to widow or widower's contributory pension. Once information of the death is received in these cases, arrangements are made to put widow's contributory pension into payment. In all cases, claims by widowed persons are dealt with promptly as soon as all the information needed to decide the entitlement is available. In the case of some 80% of applications, it is possible to complete the process in five weeks. In others, where problems arise in establishing the relevant insurance record, involving older records which extend to 1936 and are not computerised, or in establishing the applicant's means for entitlement to a non-contributory pension, it may take a little longer. In these cases, however, the overriding consideration is to ensure that no avenue to establish entitlement is left unexplored.
Given that each claim, which is not covered by the arrangements for automatic payment, has to be considered for entitlement under the various statutory qualifying criteria, I am satisfied that there is no undue delay on the part of my Department in processing widowed persons' claims. If the Deputy has a particular case in mind I will be happy to have this examined on receipt of the details. Under social welfare legislation, decisions in relation to claims are made by deciding officers and appeals officers. These officers are statutorily appointed and I have no role in regard to making such decisions.
