Seven-month wait for redundancy rebate

EMPLOYERS seeking a rebate for statutory redundancy payments made to employees are waiting up to seven months to get their money back.

As unemployment rises, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has been swamped by applications from both employers and employees for statutory redundancy entitlements.

Currently, it is dealing with 42,724 claims, more than the whole of 2008.

According to Tánaiste and Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Mary Coughlan, the huge numbers claiming are “unprecedented” and the department may consider outsourcing the work.

Figures reveal it is taking six months to process rebate applications from employers filed online. Those submitted by post are taking seven months. The number of claims received is averaging in excess of 1,800 per week.

Fine Gael TD Damien English said businesses were under great pressure because of the delay.

“They cannot get money from banks or from their customers or even from the department,” he said. “The small sums, €1,000, €2,000 or €3,000, are a great deal of money. They need that just to pay some of the bills each week. It is very serious.”

Mr English said critical cases should be prioritised. “Some businesses are under immense pressure to get the money back… We must work with them on this because it is not acceptable that they must wait six or seven months, which could become eight or nine months,” he said.

Ms Coughlan said she was “acutely aware” of the difficulties. “We have taken and continue to take all possible steps to address the issues.

“Measures already taken include the reassignment of 19 additional staff from other areas of the department to the redundancy payments area since early 2009 with ongoing review of trends and demands.”

Employers who give proper notice of redundancy to employees, and pay the statutory entitlement can receive a 60% rebate.

So far this year €126 million has been paid out, compared with €183m for all of 2008.