Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 May 2013
127. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason a carer's allowance application took 15 months to process and was refused in respect of a person (details supplied) in County Dublin. [25977/13]
View answerThe Department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible. The waiting lists and processing times for carer’s allowance were unacceptable in 2012 but significant improvements have been made in the past year by my Department. The backlog of carer’s allowance applications has been eliminated and processing times have improved greatly, with new applications now being actioned on receipt and claims received in the last 6 months are now decided within 10 weeks.
In this particular case the department received applications for carer’s allowance from the person in question on the 12th March 2012 in respect of two caree recipients. Due to the backlog of carer’s allowance applications at that time the case was only examined by a deciding officer in January 2013. The application was then sent to a social welfare investigative officer for assessment of the level of care being provided as the person concerned did not reside with the two care recipients. The report from the social welfare investigative officer was finalised on the 9th of May 2013. The deciding officer disallowed the application on the 14th of May 2013 on the grounds that full time care and attention were not being provided. A letter issued to the person concerned informing them of the decision, the reasons for it, and of her right of review or appeal.
