Vol. 556 No. 2
7 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will make a statement in relation to the ongoing delays at the Letterkenny office of her Department and the effects of the delay on people claiming under the social welfare code; and the reason it takes so long to deal with claims. [19528/02]
The Letterkenny office administers the child benefit and treatment benefit schemes. Service at the office was affected by an industrial dispute which commenced in October last year and gave rise to backlogs which continued to affect the service for some time after the dispute ended towards the end of last year. In order to concentrate the staff resource on processing the claims intake and clearing the backlog, normal telephone service had to be suspended for some time. Backlogs were cleared and claim processing returned to pre-dispute levels during this period. Normal telephone service was resumed in August. There are now no significant delays on the treatment benefit side in terms of claim processing or the telephone service.
On the child benefit side, claim processing is now generally at acceptable levels for a monthly payment. Claims for new families are being processed in four weeks and for families claiming for additional children in two weeks.
At this time of year there is a seasonal peak in the case of claims for children over 16 who resume full-time education. The overall volume of telephone calls increases as a result. Staff are being redeployed as circumstances allow to deal with the increased volumes of telephone calls but the over-riding priority is to clear the claims as quickly as possible. The situation is being monitored on an ongoing basis and every effort is being made to minimise any inconvenience to customers while this seasonal claims influx is being addressed.
The situation this year is also affected by the preparations for a new computer system which will come into service very shortly. Its introduction represents the first phase in a programme of change which has the capacity to change the way my Department works and interacts with its customers. In the child benefit context, the immediate benefits will include improved processing times for claims and a better service to customers, including system generated notices to alert them to their potential entitlements under the scheme.
This dispute has caused great frustration over the past number of months. Would it be possible for the Minister, or some of her staff, to make the occasional telephone call to Letterkenny just to find out what is going on there? People were told by the Department that the dispute was settled, yet when they rang the offices, they could not get through because the telephones were not being answered. Some of these people had to wait 15 or 16 weeks for their benefits, yet they could not get anybody to answer the telephone. That is not fair. There should be some type of monitoring in the Department, and in all Departments, whereby somebody would occasionally ring the offices to find out how the services are operating.
The main complaint I hear in my clinics concerns the difficulty people experience getting through to Departments by telephone. When officials in Departments come on the line, they will not give their names. For example, they should say: "My name is Mary Coughlan and I am dealing with your problem." If that happened, I can guarantee that there would not be as many complaints about the Minister's Department. I ask the Minister to ensure that happens.
I appreciate the concerns of many of our customers and public representatives in the context of the dispute and its aftermath. I took the opportunity to meet the members of staff in Letterkenny at the time and I am sure the Deputy will appreciate the sensitivities arising out of the dispute and the fact that additional resources were made available to deal with the backlog. However, 70,000 claims have been made since September, a time when young people have made up their minds about what they intend to do and they are given additional entitlements under the child benefit scheme.
I have made telephone calls to the Department and taken a few people by surprise. I have an ongoing mechanism, through my own MinMac, of examining service delivery. One of the more exciting developments, and I hope members of the Opposition will have an opportunity to see it, is the new service delivery model that will be initiated soon in Letterkenny. As a consequence of that we will have greater efficiency in delivery of the schemes in Letterkenny and progress over the coming years in the other schemes. The Deputy will appreciate that every time an application is made it involves the completion of certain documents, but this new system will result in a more effective service.
