Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 17 July 2012
296 Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide a breakdown of the staff in the carer’s allowance department in 2009, 2010, 2011 and to date in 2012; the breakdown of staffing resources in each unit of the carer’s allowance section; the role of each staff member in processing applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [34776/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe information requested in relation to the number of staff in carer's allowance section over the years in question is contained in the table. The numbers refer to whole time equivalents.
|
Year |
Total |
|
@ 31/12/2009 |
74.5 |
|
@ 31/12/2010 |
79.25 |
|
@ 31/12/2011 |
74.5 |
|
@ 13/7/2012 (currently) |
82.2 |
The section is broken into two main areas, the claims area and the payments/maintenance area.
The staff in the claims area is mainly dedicated to processing new claims. The staff in that area is responsible for the end to end processing of new claims which includes examining entitlements, requesting outstanding information if necessary, completing medical referrals, deciding on claims, dealing with overlaps with other social welfare schemes and the issuing of any arrears. The claims area also encompasses an appeals/revised decisions team that deals with requests for reviews and/or appeals on new claims awarded and disallowed.
The staff in the payments/maintenance area deal with a variety of different maintenance roles and responsibilities relating to the approximately 51,300 carer's allowance claims that are in payment. These functions include updating customer details (addresses, Post Office details, Bank account details, etc.), processing allowances such as free fuel, etc., adding and removing increases for qualified children, issuing of statements for tax and other purposes, dealing with terminations and control work. The payments / maintenance area also deals with general correspondence and document management, Parliamentary Questions and representations from TDs and man the TD enquiry phone lines. They also deal with routine control review work and manage overpayments and debt recovery.
The breakdown of staffing resources in each unit of the carer's allowance section is continuously reviewed. The available staff resources are deployed flexibly within the section in accordance with work volumes and priority. For this reason, it is not possible to give you a breakdown of the staffing numbers between the two sub-areas for previous years as such records are not maintained. I can tell you that, at present, of a total of 82.2 staff members, 38.2 are assigned to the claims area and 44 to the payments/maintenance area.
In addition, both areas assign staff as required on a rota basis to deal with telephone enquiries from the general public, from other areas within the Department and from public bodies.
A major service delivery modernisation project is underway to improve the efficiency of administration of the carer's allowance scheme. This involves the deployment of information technology solutions and associated business process re-organisation. Full deployment of the new system for carer's allowance was completed last month. In tandem with the full implementation of the new system a comprehensive business process improvement exercise has recently commenced, the focus of which is to optimise performance and provide improved customer service.
