Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 26 September 2018
82. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the processing times for carer's allowance and carer's benefit applications; the reason for the backlog of applications; her plans to address same; if additional staff will be allocated in order to clear same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38658/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra87. Deputy Brendan Smith asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to allocate additional resources and personnel to reduce the delays in processing carer's allowance applications; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38784/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 82 and 87 together.
My 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.
Carer's Allowance (CA) is a means-tested payment, made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that they require that level of care. An increased payment can be made where full-time care is being provided to two people.
Carer's benefit (CARB) is a payment made to insured people who leave the workforce to care for a child or an adult in need of full-time care and attention.
At the end of August 2018 the average waiting time for new CA application was 18 weeks while it was 11 weeks for a new CARB application.
Before a decision can be made on entitlement carers allowance, evidence must be provided to establish whether the person being cared for has such a disability that they require full-time care and attention, whether the carer is providing full-time care and attention, whether the carer is habitually resident in the State and, finally, whether the carer satisfies the means test.
To qualify for carers benefit a person has to show that they have the required level of PRSI contributions, that they have left full-time employment, that they are providing full-time care and attention and that the person being cared for has such a disability that they require full-time care and attention.
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 sometimes the case with carer’s applications.
The Department recently launched a re-designed carer’s allowance application form which 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.
The carers benefit form is currently being re-designed in a similar way.
Staff have recently been re-assigned within the carers areas to work on claims processing and this should lead to a reduction in processing times. In addition, there are plans to reassign work within the Department to allow for the provision of additional staff to the carer's payments area.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
