290. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Social Protection the average wait time for an urgent needs payment in Cork. [54169/26]

291. Deputy Thomas Gould asked the Minister for Social Protection the average wait time for a supplementary welfare allowance in Cork. [54170/26]

I propose to take Questions Nos. 290 and 291 together.

Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, my department may make an Additional Needs Payment (ANP) to help meet expenses that an eligible person cannot pay from their weekly income and personal and/or household resources.  An ANP is an overarching term used to refer to Exceptional and Urgent Needs Payments.  The ANP scheme is demand led and administered by Community Welfare Officers (CWOs) in the Community Welfare Service (CWS), taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance.

It is important to note that, where my officials are aware that a client has an urgent or immediate need, every effort is made to ensure that the person in question receives a prompt service, usually on the same day.

Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) provides immediate assistance for those in need who are awaiting the outcome of a claim or an appeal for a primary social welfare payment or for those who do not qualify for a payment under other State schemes.  Basic SWA payments are means tested and are administered by CWOs in the CWS, who consider the requirements of the legislation and all relevant circumstances of the case.  As part of the application process, a person is asked to provide personal, financial, household, and other information in support of their claim to determine eligibility and to establish a need as considered necessary.

Details of processing times for Supplementary Welfare Allowance, including ANPs and basic SWA, are not available by County as information is recorded based on national processing times only.  Therefore, this information is not available for the Deputy.

Claim processing times for all SWA claims, including ANPs and basic SWA, are monitored at both a national and local level in the CWS, with targeted interventions available to support and mitigate delays in any area across the Country, where fluctuations in claim loads are observed.  Work on hand nationally for ANPs and basic SWA is within the scheme's normal processing levels.  Where processing times are greater than ten working days, it is generally due to additional information or documentation being requested from the person to support their claim.  Customers in this position are given 7-14 days to respond to requests for information and when the person responds with the required information and documents, their application is finalised as promptly as possible.

The CWS is committed to providing a quality service to all citizens, ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible.

My department publishes additional statistics on ANPs in the Quarterly Statistics report which is available at [g]ov.ie.  Historic information on basic SWA processing times is also publicly available on gov.ie.

I trust this clarifies the matter.