Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 July 2025
586. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of live social welfare appeals which have been waiting for a decision for one year or longer; if he can provide a breakdown by payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37527/25]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision-making functions.
The Chief Appeals Officer has put in place measures to deal with the increase in appeals received during 2024. 20 Appeals Officers were assigned during December 2024 and January 2025 and are making appeal decisions.
Appeals where customers may not have recourse to Supplementary Welfare Allowance or are particularly vulnerable are currently being prioritised.
This approach has resulted in the successful reduction of 1,431 Domiciliary Care Allowance appeals on hand at the 31st March 2025 to less than 529 at the 30th June 2025, the majority of which are appeals registered within the last 12 weeks. A similar process is now underway to address Carer's Allowance appeals.
Overall, 24,211 appeals have been processed at 30th June this year compared to 10,738 in the first six months of 2024. It is anticipated that this level of activity will have a significant impact on the number of older appeals on hands.
In addition, The Social Welfare Appeals Regulations 2024 (S.I. No. 744 of 2024) came into effect from Monday, 28 April 2025. The purpose of these updated regulations is to modernise and streamline the social welfare appeals process, providing greater clarity, improved consistency, and more defined timeframes. This is expected to reduce the number of appeals on hand and the length of time it takes for appeals to be processed and decided.
One of the key changes introduced under the new regulations is the time limit for lodging an appeal, which has increased from 21 to 60 days, with provision for the Chief Appeals Officer to accept late appeals up to 180 days in certain circumstances. This will allow customers a longer period to prepare their appeal and gather any additional documentation. A significant proportion of the current appeals processing time can be attributed to time taken by the customer to obtain and submit reports and documentation they wish to rely on.
The total number of social welfare appeals which have been waiting for a decision for one year is currently 1,176. The main schemes are outlined in the table below.
|
Scheme |
Sum |
|
Carers Allowance |
193 |
|
Carers Benefit |
22 |
|
Carers Support Grant |
20 |
|
Child Benefit |
107 |
|
Disability Allowance |
23 |
|
Domiciliary Care Scheme |
4 |
|
Family Income Supplement |
57 |
|
Guardians Payment (Contributory) |
7 |
|
Guardians Payment (Non-Contributory) |
3 |
|
Illness Benefit |
48 |
|
Invalidity Pension |
82 |
|
Jobseekers Allowance |
64 |
|
Jobseekers Allowance Transition |
6 |
|
Jobseekers Benefit |
28 |
|
Maternity Benefit |
5 |
|
One Parent Family Payment |
83 |
|
Parents Benefit |
11 |
|
Partial Capacity Benefit |
3 |
|
Paternity Benefit |
4 |
|
Rent Allowance |
5 |
|
Rent Supplement |
3 |
|
State Pension Contributory |
123 |
|
State Pension Non Contributory |
87 |
|
SWA/BASI |
48 |
|
Widow(er)'s Contributory Pension |
12 |
|
Widows Non Contributory Pension |
7 |
The Chief Appeals Officer continues to carefully monitor the number of appeals on hand and the appeal processing times, and every effort is being made to reduce the time taken to process an appeal.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the deputy.
