Maurice Quinlivan
Question:640. Deputy Maurice Quinlivan asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the processing time for carer's allowance applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2814/19]
View answerTuesday, 22 January 2019
Questions (640)
Written answers
My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed as quickly as possible.
Where any scheme area experiences delays, all possible steps are taken to improve processing times. This includes the assignment of additional resources, where available, and the review of business processes, to ensure the efficient processing of applications.
In general, social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions can take longer to process.
To qualify for carer's allowance, the carer must show that they are habitually resident in the State, that they are providing full-time care and attention to a person who requires this level of care and that their means are less than the statutory limit.
At the end of December 2018 the average waiting time for a decision on a new carer's allowance claim was 17 weeks.
Additional staff were assigned to the CA claims processing area from within the CA area and from other areas of the Longford Centralised Schemes Office to help improve the processing times. It is expected that processing times will improve further in the coming weeks as a result.