Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 July 2017
611. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Social Protection the average wait times in processing domiciliary care allowance applications; if she has satisfied herself with the length of time it is taking for a decision to be made; and if she will allocate extra resources to the section in order to process the applications in a more timely manner. [31530/17]
View answerProcessing times for Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) are currently not meeting the target of having 70% of applications processed within 15 weeks. At present it is taking 20 weeks on average to finalise an application. There are a number of factors that have contributed to the extended time required to process claims.
Firstly, there is a significant increase in the volume of applications being received. The numbers applying for DCA have increased significantly since 2009, when the Department took over administration of the scheme from the HSE. The increase in volume year on year has been between 15% and 20% in recent years, due to an increase in population and more awareness of the scheme. Over 1,000 claims were received in May, whereas the average would have been 400 per month a few years ago.
Secondly, following a High Court ruling in 2016, there is now a need for the Department’s medical assessors to provide the deciding officer with a more detailed opinion on the child’s eligibility for the scheme and for the deciding officer in turn to provide more detailed reasons for their decision when communicating this to the customer. These factors have resulted in the time taken to finalise applications increasing significantly and as a result the numbers being processed have reduced and the timescale to finalise each application has increased.
In response to the current situation, additional deciding officers have been assigned to the scheme. This extra processing capacity should allow for an improvement in processing times. The position will continue to be closely monitored.
