MORE THAN 33,000 individuals and businesses have been waiting since the end of last year for the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation to pay redundancy claims and rebates.
The waiting times were described as “unacceptable” by Minister of State for Labour Affairs Dara Calleary, who said the department was now processing claims submitted last November and December. A total of 33,713 were outstanding at the end of last month.
“My department is currently processing rebate applications submitted from December 2009 and lump sum claims from November 2009, so the waiting time is approximately seven to eight months,” Mr Calleary said.
“Inroads are being made in the backlog of claims reducing from 42,591 in December to a level of 33,713 at end of June. The backlog and waiting times remain at unacceptable levels. However, improvements are evident.”
The comments were in response to a parliamentary question from South Tipperary Fine Gael TD Tom Hayes, who said the figures were unacceptable and that such a lengthy wait was “putting unjust and huge pressure on businesses at a difficult time”.
Mr Calleary said efforts were being made to deliver “more acceptable turnaround processing times for redundancy payments” and he acknowledged “the difficulties that this gives rise to for both individual employees and the business community”.
The Department of Enterprise administers the Social Insurance Fund on behalf of the Department of Social Protection.
Two types of payments are made under the fund: rebates to employers who have paid statutory redundancy to eligible employees; and statutory lump sums to employees whose employers are insolvent, in receivership or in liquidation.
Responsibility for the handling of the payments is to be transferred to the Department of Social Protection in January.
In the meantime, Mr Calleary said the department had moved to speed up the process by doubling the number of staff working on such claims, prioritising the overtime budget towards those handling redundancy matters and setting up a helpline for those seeking information.
“In the first six months of 2010, 40,527 claims were processed, up 115 per cent on the same period last year,” he said.
A total of 77,001 claims were received by the department last year, a threefold increase on the number received in 2007.
Between January 1st and June 30th of this year, 33,876 rebate and lump-sum claims were received by the department – a fall of 20 per cent on the corresponding period last year when 42,323 claims were lodged.
“The reduction in incoming claims is most welcome,” Mr Calleary said.
