To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning whether groups from previous European Social Fund programmes (i) were given a time line for receipt of payment; and (ii) whether payment exceeded that time line.

Groups were not originally given a timeline for processing of payments under previous European Social Fund (ESF) Programmes, but payments were typically made within around three months of receipt of claims unless there were issues which required clarification for audit reasons.

The ESF Managing Authority recognises that, in recent months, project organisations have been waiting for payments for some time. To relieve financial pressures on organisations, and to speed up the payment process, it has been agreed that from 1 July 2015 the following will apply:-

for unpaid claims submitted with claim periods up to the end of March 2014, 80% of the ESF/DEL contribution (65%) will be paid now with completion of the verification process carried out at a later date. The remaining 20% will be paid when claims are fully vouched;

for unpaid claims submitted with claim periods from April to December 2014, 50% of the ESF/DEL contribution (65%) will be paid now with completion of verification process carried out at a later date. The remaining 50% will be paid when the claims are fully vouched.

Arrangements have been in place to commence processing the above payments to organisations from 6 July 2015.

Claims submitted with claim periods January to March 2015 will continue to be processed with no partial payment in advance. All outstanding claims will be processed chronologically based on the date of receipt. Claims inspected from 17 June 2015 will be processed using the new verification methodology.

My Department is currently working to address audit and control issues in the ESF Managing Authority so that all payments to project organisations can be released as quickly as possible over the next few weeks.

These arrangements have been communicated to organisations.