I welcome this opportunity to address the committee on various issues in regard to the activities and operations of the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The committee has raised concerns under five headings regarding the administration of social welfare schemes and the operations of the Department. I will address each of these items separately.
In order to ensure members have a broad understanding of the work of the Department and set the discussion in context, I will provide some statistics. The Department of Social and Family Affairs administers more than 35 schemes to provide income support for those who need it and supports for people of working age who wish to re-enter the labour market. During 2005 the Department administered a budget of some €13 billion. Some 1.87 million new claim applications were received during the year and each week, on average, payments issued to approximately 1 million people in respect of some 1.5 million beneficiaries. In 2000, by comparison, the Department had a budget of €5.3 billion and issued payments to some 870,000 people in respect of 1.4 million beneficiaries. This is an indication of the growth in recent years.
As with other areas of the public service, the Department is required to operate within an overall staffing limit set in 2003 in the context of the Government's overall public service staff numbers policy. The staff and other resources available to the Department are regularly reviewed having regard to the volume of claims, budget measures to be implemented and other competing demands. We do our best to assign these resources in the most efficient and effective way. Our objective is to deliver a service to our customers while, at the same time, implementing cost-effective controls to prevent and detect fraud and abuse. The Department is engaged in this process on an ongoing basis.
Committee members expressed concerns about the recent headline in a daily newspaper which proclaimed "€6.5 million missing in immigrant child allowance blunder". This headline is both inaccurate and misleading. The figure of €6.5 million relates to overpayments which arose over a five-year period from 2001 to 2005. Furthermore, the figure is not, as suggested in the article, related solely to asylum seekers. Rather, it represents the level of overpayments incurred in respect of all child benefit claims in that period.
Overpayments on child benefit claims arise in a variety of situations, such as when a child leaves school, goes to live in a different household or leaves the State. During 2005, 46% of overpayments arose in respect of children leaving the State to go, for instance, to live in Northern Ireland or the United Kingdom. While the Department does not believe any level of overpayments is acceptable, I ask members to note that during the period 2001 to 2005 some €7.76 billion was paid in child benefit and that overpayments of €6.5 million represent just 0.83% of the amount paid out.
Several controls on expenditure in respect of child benefit claims are in place. The automation of claims in recent years and the checks carried out in this regard are particularly significant. The procedures in place for administering claims for children coming from other countries involve examination of the validity of the documentation such as birth certificates, proffered by customers. We issue informational mailshots on an ongoing basis and we follow up where the letter is not delivered or where there is no response from the claimant.
We recognise that the growth in immigration in recent years has affected the issue of control. The Department is actively considering what further we must do to ensure that new measures can be put in place to address the issues that arise. At the same time, we must have regard to ensuring an equal treatment approach to all persons with whom we deal.
Members have also expressed concerns in regard to the delays in administering the carer's allowance. There are more than 26,000 claims in payment, which equates to an increase of 5% in claims since the beginning of this year and 13% since the beginning of last year. We receive some 1,000 new claims per month and there are some 2,000 claims currently awaiting finalisation.
We have made some improvement this year on the processing times and the turnaround in decisions. The improvement was achieved despite the fact that 5,570 new claims for carers were received in the first six months of this year as compared to 4,200. That is an increase of 32% in the number of new claims. In my note I outlined the various approaches taken to improve claim processing. Regardless of the actions we take to reduce the number of claims, time lags in processing claims will occur because of the need to assess the carer's allowance under a variety of headings, including means, medical and residence. As we took a number of actions to improve processing and the claim load is increasing, the scope for further improvement is extremely limited.
The position on the respite care grant is that 28,000 grants have been paid this year. Of these, 26,000 were paid to people entitled to receive it automatically without the need for an application such as those in receipt of carer's allowance, carer's benefit, prescribed relative allowance or constant attendance allowance. Up to last Friday, the Department had processed 1,900 applications from people not entitled to receive the grant automatically.
This year we will solicit applications in two phases. We wrote to people who received the grant last year and invited them to apply. On foot of this, approximately 6,000 applications were received to date, of which one quarter have been processed. The second phase will involve a press and publicity campaign later in the year. In addition to dealing with grant applications for this year, we still receive applications for grants for 2005, of which 1,600 cases have been processed.
By its nature, receiving a large volume of applications in a relatively short period of time puts pressure on processing sections. We appointed an additional nine staff on a temporary basis. However, familiarisation and training issues arose which had to be overcome. We are confident that staff members are now working at full capacity and we will be able to process the applications much faster.
I will address two aspects of delays in issuing pensions. The Department experienced an increase in the level of claims in recent times. We administer three schemes for people of retirement age, namely, the old age contributory pension, the retirement pension and the old age non-contributory pension. In 2005, approximately 201,000 people received either a contributory or retirement pension and 84,000 received a non-contributory pension. Today some 220,000 people receive either contributory or retirement pension and 84,000 receive an old-age non-contributory pension. That is an increase of 9.4% over the figure for 2005.
From January to March last year we received 9,000 new claims for contributory or retirement pensions and 2,500 for non-contributory pensions. In the first quarter of this year we received 10,200 new claims for contributory or retirement pensions and 2,900 for the old-age non-contributory pension an increase of 14%.
As the committee is aware, the Department is undertaking a major service delivery modernisation programme. At the end of May this year, the system was implemented for contributory and retirement pensions. Approximately 220,000 customer records were successfully moved from a 20 year old computer system to the new system. The change also involved a major reorganisation of work to take advantage of the new technology. This, in itself, involved intensive training of all staff.
It is inevitable in a major change programme that the capacity of a processing claims section would reduce, and a backlog of work has accrued. Approximately 7,500 claims await decision and 3,280 people have been identified as having reached the age of 66 years. The area's management has taken a number of actions to reduce the backlog and bring the level down to the normal number of 3,000. These actions include prioritising cases where the person has reached pension age, deploying additional experienced staff to process the new claims, applying additional overtime and deprioritising other work.
We issue a letter of acknowledgement when we receive an application from a customer and we return any documentation such as birth certificates to the person as soon as possible. We have revised the wording of this letter to avoid any concerns for the customer. In all cases, the original date of receipt will be used as the date of the claim and customers will not lose out on payments.
I regret the delays in processing pensions. I assure committee members the staff and management of the Department make every effort to ensure this temporary situation is resolved in the shortest time possible. Our intention at all times is to ensure customers receive their pensions as soon as possible after reaching pension age.
The delays referred to relate to new claims for contributory and retirement pensions. A substantial amount of work is involved in managing and maintaining existing claims such as where people change address, lose books or experience other changes in circumstances. This work is kept up-to-date to avoid any gaps in payments for those already on pensions.
We normally ask people to apply for their pensions at least three months before the due date, a policy which has been successful in the past. In the past 12 months it has taken on average less than seven weeks to process a claim and less than six weeks to process a retirement pension claim. Where applications are made in advances, approximately 80% are awarded before the person reaches pension age.
While we do experience difficulties from the implementation of service delivery modernisation, I assure the committee that in time we will be able to offer our customers an enhanced service by proactively inviting them to make pension claims in advance of reaching pension age. We will also be in a position to provide an integrated service to these customers in respect of free travel allowance and household benefits by eliminating the need for customers to make separate applications for these services.
We receive approximately 10,000 new applications per year for non-contributory pensions. These often involve a home visit by a social welfare inspector to assess a person's means. However, it takes approximately nine weeks on average to process these claims and more than one third are in payment by the time the person reaches the age of 66 years. Only 124 such cases await decision.
I am sorry to hear the telephone service to members of the committee is unsatisfactory. During the years we tried to improve on the quality of services provided to all Members of the Oireachtas. The Department has dedicated phone numbers in 45 of its business areas to enable Members of the Oireachtas to quickly contact us on behalf of their constituents. Each year, a list of the numbers and contact names is circulated and these are updated on a regular basis.
Where a person cannot give an immediate answer to the caller, a return call will be made within an agreed timeframe, normally on the same day, or at most, within 24 hours. We surveyed the numbers on the list, and with two exceptions, all contact details are still valid. We are arranging to replace those two names. I invite members of the committee to contact my office if they experience difficulties in contacting the Department. I will be happy to investigate any specific instances where they experience problems to ensure I can ensure a quality service resumes as soon as possible.
I hope the situations I outlined have given committee members an understanding of the issues addressed by the Department and the actions we take to overcome difficulties and delays. I assure the committee it is our intention to continue the policy of delivering a quality service to our customers.