Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The social welfare appeals office is an office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions relating to social welfare payments.

Appeals officers are independent in their decision-making functions. Between 2014 and the end of March 2024, 241,019 disability allowance claims were received by the Department. Those figures are for ten years. Between 2014 and the end of March 2024, 24% of claim decisions or 58,485 disability allowance appeals were received in the Social Welfare Appeals Office. Of these 39,658, or 69% were subsequently allowed or partially allowed, either by a deciding officer on review or by an appeals officer. In many cases this was because additional information was provided at the time of appeal that was not available to the original deciding officer.

The Department is aware that many people submit an application immediately on diagnosis, but before full medical reports are received. Submitting an early application establishes a claim date to which payment is ultimately backdated. In 2023, approximately 1% of the decisions made by the Department of Social Protection were appealed to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. The total number of disability allowance appeals received annually in the years from 2014 to 2023 ranged from 4,912 to 6,661. That is an average of 5,702 per year over those ten years. From 1 January 2024 to 30 March 2024, 1,467 disability allowance appeals were received. A table giving a breakdown of disability allowance appeals received, appeals allowed or partially allowed and appeals which had revised decisions made by the Department from 2014 to 2023 and from 1 January 2024 to March 2024 is available and we will provide it to the Deputy.

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