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

In 2022, 26,021 disability allowance claims were registered with my Department, with 13,817 claims awarded and a total of 5,637 appeals. Domiciliary care allowance claims registered stood at 10,524, with 7,872 claims awarded and 2,084 appeals. There were 22,841 claims registered for carer's allowance, with 14,921 claims awarded and 3,521 appeals.

During 2022, the Department continued to receive an increased number of claims across all of these schemes. Claim volumes for disability allowance increased by more than 26% year on year and more than 8% on its pre-pandemic level in 2019. Claims volumes for domiciliary care allowance and for carer's allowance increased by more than 15% and 16% respectively compared with 2021, and between 18% and 21% on their pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Notwithstanding these increases in workloads, improvements in processing times made in recent years were maintained, with claim decisions being made in an average of six weeks compared with 12 to 19 weeks in 2017, and ten to 14 weeks in 2019.

It should be noted that the number of claims awarded include cases that were previously disallowed or refused and subsequently found eligible on review or appeal. In addition, the total number of claims received in a calendar year will not equal the number of claims awarded or disallowed in the same year. Claims awarded, disallowed or appealed may relate to claims received in previous calendar years.

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