Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This arises in the context of a recent High Court case. The social welfare system has a practice of appeals officers revising decisions in a particular set of circumstances. There are approximately 2 million applications per year to the Department for a whole range of benefits. When the appeals process has been exhausted but where circumstances have changed, the Department allows a fresh application in order to take account of the change of circumstances and the matter proceeds. Until now that flexibility has been seen as an asset in allowing deciding officers and appeals officers to deal with differing circumstances but following the recent High Court ruling, the provisions relating to a change of circumstances are now considered problematic as they unintentionally remove finality from social welfare determinations that refused claims and they introduce considerable uncertainty into the system of social welfare decision-making as a consequence.

It has been the practice in the Department that once a claim is refused and all review and appeals processes have been finalised, if the customers seeks a revised decision based on a change of circumstance, he or she is advised to make the fresh application. The new claim is fully assessed in the light of all the circumstances. In the context of the High Court decision, the Department would no longer be able to ask people to make a fresh claim but would have to reopen the claim, even if it was closed many years previously. The purpose of sections 3 to 5, inclusive, are to address the issue but in a limited range of circumstances. Specifically, section 3 amends the provision of section 301 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act which applied to the revision by a deciding officer of a previous decision of a deciding officer, an appeals officer or a designated person in regard to SWA. Where the original decision was wrong and if new facts and evidence emerge, the customer will be able to seek a revised decision. The amendment does not change that. Where a claimant is in payment, it will be possible to revise the decision if circumstances change but where a person was refused a social welfare payment in the past and the circumstances change, the current channel is to make a fresh application so that the application can be fully considered in the light of the current circumstances and the amendment seeks to ensure that will be the practice in all cases.

In light of the High Court decision, I have asked the officials in the Department to carry out a more wide-ranging review of the legislation on social welfare decisions. If I need to address this subsequently in a future social welfare Bill, I will do so then.