David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 22: To ask the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 65 of 10 May 2011, 28 out of the 166 applications finalised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office in 2010, the numbers which were allowed and partially allowed by revised decision, summary decision or oral hearing; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21357/11]

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Question 26: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons in receipt of supplementary welfare allowance greater than three months pending an appeal for a social welfare payment; the reasons for the delay; if she has satisfied herself with the manner in which the appeals are being managed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21394/11]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 37: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which she expects to be in a position to deal with backlogs and appeals in respect of various payments that have accumulated over the past 12 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21392/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 22, 26 and 37 together.

Figures on the breakdown of decisions in respect of the 28,166 appeals disposed of by the social welfare appeals office during 2010 are enclosed in the following table. I am informed by the social welfare appeals office that the number of appeals waiting to be processed on 17 July was 19,525. There are limited statistics available on the number of individuals in receipt of supplementary welfare allowance for greater than three months pending an appeal for a social welfare payment. However, Department records show that there are currently 1,257 such individuals awaiting the outcome of their appeal on either a jobseeker's allowance, a jobseeker's benefit or an illness benefit claim.

In an effort to reduce the backlog of appeals, I made nine additional appointments to the appeals office in recent weeks. These assignments will augment the three appointments made to the office in 2010, bringing the total number of appeals officers serving in the office to 29. In addition, since July 2010, eight retired appeals officers, equating to a further three full-time officers, have been assisting on a strictly part-time basis with the backlogs of appeals and it is intended that they will be employed until the end of the year.

I am assured by the chief appeals officer that she is keeping the methods of operation by which the social welfare appeals office conducts its business under constant review, and that the processes are continuously being enhanced to reduce the backlogs in the office and to reduce the overall processing times for dealing with appeals. In that regard, 3,000 cases registered prior to 31 December 2010 have been ring fenced and a team of ten of the most experienced appeals officers have been freed from all other work in the office and will concentrate on clearing this backlog. This project began on 1 July.

More emphasis is now being placed on dealing with appeals on a summary basis where possible to increase productivity. In some cases, if applications were made more clearly and the medical evidence more clearly laid out, that would certainly assist the process of making a decision in the first instance. As a result, the number of appeals dealt with by way of oral hearing was reduced from 42% for the first six months of 2010 to just over 30% for the same period in 2011.

I have been to the appeals office to visit the staff. They are under tremendous pressure and to give them their due, they are working flat out to deal with the backlog.

Appeals Disposed of During 2010

Appeals Determined by Appeals Officers

With the extra staff, who are all experienced social welfare staff, I am hopeful we will continue to make inroads into dealing with the backlog.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her reply. I am delighted to hear of the progress that is being made. Has the Minister a target set for waiting times, whether it would be acceptable to have three weeks or five weeks or what would be the target time at the end of this process? Is it true that the number of appeals received by the social welfare appeals office has increased by more 100% from 2007 to 2010? Can the Minister advise as to why this might be the case? Has it anything to do with claims being refused by deciding officers or the application of stricter qualifications criteria? Can the Minister advise on the impact of the office deciding more appeals by summary decision? Is this translating into more appeals being turned down? How is the decision on whether to grant an oral hearing made? Who makes the decision? Are there transparent criteria for that?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I will arrange for the details to be forwarded to the Deputy. There has been an enormous increase in the number of appeals. The number of them has multiplied several times in each of the recent years. There was a 46% increase in the number of appeals in 2009 compared with 2008, and that was 27% greater than the number in 2007. There was a further increase of 26% in the number of appeals received in 2010. There has been an enormous increase in the number of appeals. I will forward the Deputy the statistical information.

On the question of cutting back the time involved in the processing of an appeal, we are not yet at the stage where we can give an indicative time for this. We have to reduce the backlog and improve the system. People will be familiar with the idea that in the case of passport applications and citizenship applications, it has become a standard that an applicant must complete the application properly and that greatly increases the opportunity to deal with the application at first instance. If applications can be dealt with on a summary, first instance basis, then the matters which go to appeal can be dealt with much more rapidly. Because there is more than a 50% success rate on appeals, that is a strong indication that many of the appeals are not fully presented with the fullest amount of information that would enhance the making of a decision by the person who decides initially and, subsequently, on appeal.

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister has referred previously to the review by a deciding officer before an application would reach the stage of an appeal. I wonder if anything more can be done in that respect. For instance, in many cases where an application for carer's allowance is refused, a simple telephone call or an explanation of the information that is missing would probably prevent the application having to be appealed in the first instance. Can more be done at the early stage of the processing of applications before the stage of appeal? This would help to reduce the waiting list.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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That is a very sensible suggestion. As the community welfare officers move into the Department, this is an area where they in particular probably have enhanced experience and sensitivity. Perhaps we can have better advisory services and a better quality of information available in citizens information centres. Various organisations supply excellent information which enables people to make a much more directed application that is likely to be successful. We will return to this topic as, hopefully, we reduce the backlog and we will see what can be done to streamline and improve the quality of the application process.

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I did not realise that Question No. 26 was being taken with Question No. 22. These are difficult times and the appeals system is under severe pressure. The Minister said that community welfare officers will be transferring to her Department. Will that require the introduction of legislation? Under the 2005 supplementary welfare legislation, SI 412, a community welfare officer has exceptional powers of discretion when it comes to emergency funding or in circumstances where he or she and the primary team who might work with the community came across a situation that allows them to override the system. The Minister is aware that the supplementary welfare legislation is known as the payment of last resort and considerable changes have taken place in practice whereby the community welfare officer can now act as a buffer until the appeals system is dealt with. I am mindful of extraordinary cases, be they of poverty, where a special appliance is needed, a payment is required by a person who is terminally ill and there may be no time to carry out a means test, or a payment is required to cover the cost of a funeral. Is there a need for the supplementary welfare legislation to be reviewed? When community welfare officers transfer to her Department, will they no longer have the title "community welfare officers"? What level of community contact will they have and will there be a service available for people with exceptional needs, some examples of which I gave?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Negotiations are ongoing in the Labour Relations Commission in regard to the community welfare officers. They will become full civil servants and they will be community welfare officers. On the matter of whether changes are required to the legislation, I will return to the Deputy on that. First, we must achieve the integration of the service. The community welfare officers have a potentially extremely valuable and important role to play in improving the services of the Department. The number of people getting special needs payments and the amounts of the payments have grown significantly in recent years. It is perhaps an area which could be reviewed but first we want to get the integration of the community welfare officers into the Department and that in itself is a big job. There will be up to 1,000 extra staff and that will be a big change for the staff in the Department of Social Protection. Obviously it will be a very big change for the community welfare officers. There has been a fair number of meetings of senior staff in the Department with community welfare officers and I am very anxious to see them successfully joining the staff of the Department.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Is it true it is taking six weeks for appeals to be logged to the system from the time they are received in the office? In saying that I am not criticising the staff in any way because I realise the pressure they are under. If that is the case, when does the clock start ticking? Is it when the appeal is received or when it is logged?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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It can take quite a period of time. There is an attempt to streamline what is happening to improve the quality of the decision making and particularly to improve the time period in which decisions are made. The streamlining is being achieved through meetings with various areas of the Department.