The 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 made as quickly as possible and subsequent appeals are submitted to the Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO) without delay.
There has been a high volume of applicants for carer's allowance in recent years. There were 16,574 registered in 2009, 18,212 in 2010 and 17,259 in 2011.
In order to meet the challenge of increased volumes of new claims for its schemes, the Department has embarked on a major programme of process redesign and modernisation, including the deployment of new computer systems. The first tranche of new carer's allowance claims began to be processed under the new system is August 2011. It is anticipated that the new system will introduce significant processing efficiencies and a quicker and more responsive service to the customer. Accordingly, the project is being given high priority and involves a significant level of time and commitment from the relevant staff in the Department. This has had a short-term negative impact on claim processing times and ancillary work.
The time taken in 2011 to process a carer's allowance appeal, from the date a notice of appeal is lodged to the date a submission is lodged with the SWAO, is an average of approximately 13 weeks. Processes and procedures are continuously reviewed with the explicit objective of reducing delays. The position is being closely monitored and kept under review by the Department.
Regarding carer's benefit appeals, 80% of appeals submissions are sent to SWAO within four weeks of receipt and the balance within 8 weeks. This has been consistent for the last three years.