Vol. 441 No. 8
27 Mr. Sargent asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason for the delays in processing unemployment claims which can be up to 14 weeks in some cases, in view of the hardship this causes to the claimants; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Since I became Minister for Social Welfare I have been constantly seeking ways of improving the quality of service to the public. A regional structure was set up in 1991 with the objective of giving a more localised and speedy service. As a result of new procedures, processing times for all claims under the various schemes have been reduced. In the case of unemployment assistance, the average processing time nationwide is now eight working days while in the case of unemployment benefit the figure is five working days.
Unfortunately longer delays do occur in some instances. I understand the Deputy has the particular case of a self employed person in mind which took considerably longer than the average length of time to finalise. I am glad to say now that unemployment assistance is now in payment and all arrears due to the person concerned were paid to him on 22 March last.
