Mairéad Farrell
Ceist:785. Deputy Mairéad Farrell asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the average processing time for a carer's allowance as of 17 July 2020. [19683/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraThursday, 30 July 2020
Ceisteanna (785)
Freagraí scríofa
Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care.
My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed as quickly as possible. To qualify for CA, the carer must show that they are habitually resident in the State, that they are providing full-time care and attention to a person who requires this level of care and that their means are less than the statutory limit.
In general, social welfare schemes with a number of complex qualifying conditions can take longer to process. In some cases the documentary evidence provided at initial application stage is incomplete or insufficient and this can lead to delays in processing.
Claim processing is kept under active review. The target for the CA scheme is to process 70% of claims in 12 weeks. The average processing time for CA at the end of June was 5 weeks and 91% of claims were processed within 12 weeks.
I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.