Social Welfare Update: Carers Allowance 14th November 2012

To ask the Minister for Social Protection the length of time currently taken to process carer’s allowance applications on average; the extent to which the situation has improved or otherwise over the past three years to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

– Bernard J. Durkan.

Question No: 411 Ref No: 50139-12

*       For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday, 13th November, 2012.

R E P L Y

Minister for Social Protection (Joan Burton T.D):

The average time taken to process carer’s allowance applications at present is 25 weeks.   It should be noted that this is an average time, with some applications being processed much quicker and some applications taking longer.   The corresponding average time taken to award applications in 2011 is not available as applications were being processed on two separate systems while the modernisation process was underway.   The average times taken to process applications in 2008, 2009 and 2010 were 15 weeks, 9 weeks and 8 weeks respectively.

I acknowledge that the time taken to process carer’s allowance claims at present is not satisfactory but I am satisfied that the Department is taking appropriate action to resolve the situation.

Carer’s allowance section has recently completed a major service delivery modernisation project to improve the efficiency with which it processes applications from clients for carer’s allowance. The project involved the development of IT functionality and associated business process re-organisation.   Full deployment of the new system for Carer’s Allowance was completed in June 2012.

Following the completion of the modernisation project, an in-depth business process improvement (BPI) project was completed for the carer’s allowance scheme.   This project focused on optimising output and customer service and the reduction of backlogs. The outcome of the review is the division of work into two streams. One concentrates on dealing with new claim intake and processes these without delay and the other on the backlog which is ring-fenced with a clear and targeted plan for its elimination.   Implementation of the plan commenced on Monday 3 September and will be closely monitored and managed to ensure it achieves its objectives. A noted increase in the number of new claims processed was achieved in September and October, where claims processed substantially exceeded claim intake, and this increase continues into November.   However, it will take a number of months before the backlog is reduced to an acceptable level. The allocation of available resources to this task continues to be monitored in order that the backlog is eliminated in the shortest possible timeframe.