Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 January 2019
246. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if she is satisfied with the efficiency of the way in which her Department is processing FIS payments; and the turnaround times of applications. [2040/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraWorking Family Payment (formerly Family Income Supplement) is an in-work payment which provides additional income support to employees on low earnings with children. Working Family Payment (WFP) is payable for a 52 week period from award date and a person must reapply at the end of this period to have their payment renewed.
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 in a timely fashion.
The average waiting time for processing new WFP applications is currently 8 weeks.
Operational processes, procedures and the organisation of work are continually being monitored and reviewed in the WFP area to ensure that the best use is made of all available resources and that application processing capacity is maximised.
All possible steps are being taken to improve processing times in this area. All available staff are assigned to claims processing to ensure that new applications are dealt with as quickly and efficiently as possible. As a consequence of the above measures, it is expected that WFP new application processing times will improve significantly in the coming weeks.
WFP renewal forms are issued to customers 8 weeks before the expiry of the 52 week period and these applications are generally processed within 2 weeks of expiry.
In view of the above factors the Department is satisfied that the WFP applications are being processed efficiently and waiting times will reduce.
