Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 February 2018
572. Deputy Fiona O'Loughlin asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average waiting time for decisions on carer's allowance and domiciliary care allowance payments; the number of persons awaiting decisions for such payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5317/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.
Before a decision can be made on entitlement to carer’s allowance, evidence must be provided in respect of the care recipient’s care requirement, the level of care the carer provides and the carer’s means. In general, social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions can take longer to process. This is compounded if the documentary evidence provided at initial application stage is incomplete or insufficient; this is often the case with carer’s allowance applications.
At the end of December 2017, the average waiting time for new carer's allowance (CA) applications was 17 weeks with 5,284 CA applications awaiting decision. The volume of CA applications on hands are also a consequence of a continued increased intake of claims with the number of applications for CA in 2017 26% higher than in 2015. Staff have been re-assigned within the carer’s allowance area to work on claims processing and it is expected that this will improve the processing times for this scheme over the coming weeks.
A redesigned application form will be available shortly; this new form will allow carers to provide more information on the type and level of care they provide, with an aim to providing Deciding Officers with the information they need to expedite decisions on entitlement.
Due to increased volumes of claims and the need to provide more detailed decision letters in line with High Court decisions it was taking, on average, 20 weeks in July 2017 to process a domiciliary care allowance (DCA) claim. Remedial actions, including the assignment of extra staff, were taken and the average waiting time for new DCA applications is currently less than 13 weeks with some 1,300 DCA applications awaiting decision. Further additional staff are in the process of being assigned to this area and it is hoped to reduce the processing time further over the coming period.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
