Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 March 2017
158. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection to outline his plans to provide extra staff in the carer's allowance review section, which is currently understaffed and has cases received as far back as May 2016 that are only being assessed now. [12518/17]
View answerCurrently, there are 73.5 full-time equivalents (77 people) assigned to the Carers section.
My Department, like all Government departments and agencies, is required to operate within a staff ceiling figure and a commensurate administrative staffing budget, which for this Department has involved reductions in staff numbers.
Within these constraints, the Department is focusing on prioritising the filling of critical posts. The staffing needs for all areas within the Department, including the Carers Section, are continuously reviewed, taking account of workloads, management priorities and the competing demands arising, to ensure that the best use is made of all available resources with a view to providing an efficient service to those who rely on the schemes operated by the Department.
Within the Carers Section, the priority is to ensure that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. This scheme has seen a considerable increase in applications in recent years. There was a 47% increase in applications from 2012 and a 20% increase in applications in 2016 over 2015.
Once a claim is in payment, any one of the 71,850 carers can seek a review at any stage and my Department seeks to process these requests as quickly as possible. While the review is ongoing the carer continues to receive the allowance and if it is decided that they are due a higher rate of payment than is currently in payment to them, full arrears will be paid to them from the date that their means changed.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
