AQW 19778/17-22

Ms Kellie Armstrong
Alliance Party
Strangford

Tabled Date: 02/06/2021
Answered On Date: 18/06/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Communities to detail the average length of time the Northern Ireland Housing Executive took to issue payments for The Disabled Facilities Grant, broken down for each region, for each of the last three financial years.

Answer:

The Housing Executive has provided the following table detailing the average number of calendar days taken to issue payment for Disabled Facilities Grants, broken down by Grants Office, for the last two financial years. The Housing Executive has advised that its Private Sector Improvement Services introduced a new IT system in 2019 and therefore it is unable to supply like for like figures for the financial year 2018/19.

Grants Office	Average Calendar Days
	2019-2020	2020-2021
Belfast	69	95
North East	86	66
Derry	85	148*
West	39	42
South	63	69

It should be noted that the figures for 2020-21 were directly impacted by government restrictions as a result of the ongoing pandemic. The Housing Executive did put in place measures to continue processing applications and payments to the construction industry, where possible, during lockdown.