Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 6 December 2012
48. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection if there has been a change of practise in processing applications for family income supplement (details supplied); if a person who applied pre October could cancel that application and apply again and will it be processed straight away but would then lose any back money that they would have received with the original claim. [54863/12]
View answer49. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection the length of time it takes to process an application for family income support and the length of time it will take to clear the current backlog. [54864/12]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 48 and 49 together.
The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. An in-depth business process improvement (BPI) project has recently been completed for the FIS scheme. This project focused on optimising output, improving customer service and the elimination of backlogs. Part of the project was a detailed examination of workloads and a full assessment of existing capacity within the area and what capacity is needed in order to process the volumes of claims, both new and renewal, being received on a weekly basis.
The outcome of this review is a detailed plan outlining the process required to manage both the continuous weekly intake and backlog claims clearance. This plan sees the current weekly new claim and renewal intake processed by one team, while the backlog is ring-fenced and a focused team assigned to this work with a clear plan for its elimination. Clearly, claims received before November are not parked and are getting full and focused priority.
This team including additional temporary resources has been identified and is already assigned and working on the backlog claims. In order to reduce the time it will take to eliminate the backlog, some claims are being processed outside of Longford Social Welfare Services Office. This team is fully focussed on the elimination of the backlog of claims in the shortest possible timeframe, concentrating in the first instance on those claims which were previously in payment but where payment has expired and continuing on to first-time new claims within those categories, those waiting the longest will be processed first.
While it is not possible to clear all claims in the backlog before Christmas, every effort will be made to pay as many eligible claims as possible in that timeframe. It is expected that the backlog will be fully eliminated by the end of March 2013. Claims which are approved by the backlog team will be backdated to the date of claim or the date of expiry of the previous claim, as appropriate, and all arrears due will be paid. It is not advisable for an applicant to choose to withdraw their application before it is decided upon and re-apply from a current date because the consequence of this is that they will lose entitlement for the period between the first and the second applications.
