Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 September 2007
109 Deputy Bernard Allen asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the position regarding the backlog of pension claims identified earlier in 2007; the reason for this backlog; the average waiting time for a claim to be processed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20775/07]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is committed to providing a quality service for all of its customers. Claims and applications are processed and decisions on entitlement issued as quickly as possible, having regard to the eligibility conditions which apply and the available resources.
The State pension transition, SPT, and State pension contributory, SPC, schemes, which are insurance based schemes, require those eligible to reach a certain standard in terms of the social insurance contributions paid or credited on their record. The customer base is 239,000 with an annual intake of 36,000 claims. These customers predominantly reside within the State but approximately 14% are paid abroad.
Some difficulties occurred during the months prior to May this year with regard to the processing of State pension transition and State pension contributory claims. In April there was a backlog of approximately 9,200 new claims for SPT and SPC at various stages of processing. These were divided into 5,600 domestic and 3,600 foreign claims. By the end of August the domestic claims backlog was fully cleared and action was taken on all foreign claims. In all cases where delays occur customers do not lose payment as the determining date for pension payment used is the original date of receipt of the claim.
Social welfare entitlements requiring examination under EU or bilateral agreements take a longer time to process than domestic claims due to the need to obtain additional information from the customer which can often prove to be difficult and to exchange information with the other countries involved. Approximately 3,000 foreign claims await information from customers or foreign institutions. Reviews of the implementation of EU and bilateral arrangements, including the timely processing of requests for information, are carried out from time to time by officials of the Department and social insurance institutions in the other countries involved.
Delays in processing new claims occurred for a number of reasons, namely, an increase in the numbers of new claims received, the implementation in September 2006 of a number of scheme enhancements introduced in budget 2006, an unusually high level of staff turnover in the office in Sligo and delays which arose following the migration of the pensions system to a new computer system. As I stated, these have all been dealt with and all we await is information from other countries on foreign claims.
One of the reasons given in May for the delay in processing was a series of technical glitches in the Department's IT system. Will the Minister confirm that this issue has been resolved? He mentioned the turnover of staff in Sligo, part of the reason for which was decentralisation. Will he guarantee that steps will be taken to ensure the Department's customers will not be affected by the decentralisation process?
The Deputy's first question is one I also asked. All of the issues have been resolved. There were some technical issues but they have been resolved. I have provided the information to the Deputy. About 40% of the staff turnover was related to decentralisation where staff transferred to another area. I certainly do not want any issues relating to decentralisation, which is substantial within my Department, to have any effect on customers in terms of the delivery of the services they require. We will try to ensure — and the staff is committed to this — that such upheaval will not cause the type of delays to which the Deputy referred. I am glad this issue was resolved very quickly. All the outstanding claims are foreign based and relate to information from the individuals or the institutions in the other countries. Until we get that information we cannot finalise the payment. However, it will be backdated so that there is no loss of money to the individual.
If one needs a pension one cannot afford to wait. In regard to other claims within the Department, such as the carer's allowance, where there is also a significant backlog, will the Minister outline any steps he will take? There is a similar backlog for the €1,000 payment to foreign nationals living here who are entitled to receive it.
I do not have that information with me but I will raise the issue in the Department.
