To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning to detail how many groups from the previous European Social Fund Programme have yet to receive their payment in full.

Of the 96 projects from the previous European Social Fund programme, six have been paid in full. The remainder have at least one outstanding claim for payment. Some claims are currently with the ESF Managing Authority for finalising before being processed for payment; 75 claims have yet to be received by my Department.

Groups were not originally given a timeline for processing of payments under previous 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.

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 put in place to commence processing the above payments referred to in 2 (i) and (ii) above to organisations from 6 July 2015. Organisations should have already received these payments.

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.

These arrangements have been communicated to organisations.