Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to reform the social welfare appeals system in view of the recent FLAC report; her further plans to address delays in the issuing of decisions and the reductions in oral hearings; her views on the importance of consistency, transparency and proper access to legal advice and representation for applicants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50056/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The social welfare appeals office is a separate executive office with its own premises and staff. It operates independently of the Department and the Minister. The appeals process has a statutory basis in secondary legislation. As appeals officers are quasi-judicial, they are required to be free and unrestricted in discharging their functions. The high level of appeals allowed - 42% in 2011 - is evidence of the independence of the process. Significant resources are being assigned to improve initial decision-making and thereby reduce the number of appeals. A formal two week deciding officer training course was designed and launched in November 2011 for staff working in the areas of jobseekers' claims and decisions. The course includes scheme conditions, legislation, best practice procedures and areas such as natural justice, good decision-making and proper customer service standards. Initial work has started to develop further training for deciding officers in other scheme areas relating to decision-making, reviewing decisions and appeals submissions.

As Deputies are aware, the rapid and sustained increase in the number of appeals since 2009 has placed extraordinary pressure on the social welfare appeals office. Significant resources and efforts have been put into reducing backlogs and improving processing times for appellants. For example, 15 additional appeals officers have been assigned, retired experienced officers were retained for 18 months ending in December 2011, business processes have been improved and a new operating model has been implemented. As a result of these measures, there has been a significant increase in the number of finalised appeals, from an average of 13,500 some years ago to 34,027 in 2011. Processing times were reduced by 10.2 weeks overall in the nine months to September 2012. The oral hearing time is down by 12.5 weeks, while the summary decision time is up by 2.3 weeks.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

I am advised by the chief appeals officer that eight very experienced retired appeals officers were retained from July 2010 until December 2011. Their employment resulted in the front-loading of summary decisions during this period. As a result, during 2010, a total of 11,985 cases, or 69%, were decided on a summary basis as against 5,514, or 31%, which were given following an oral hearing. The corresponding figures for 2011 were 16,569, or 65%, and 8,821, or 35%. To the end of October 2012, some 10,602 cases or 57% had been decided on a summary basis, as against 7,992, or 43%, following an oral hearing. Consistency and transparency in decision-making are crucial for people in accessing their rights. This is addressed by the Department through training and information provided for deciding officers. It is the statutory responsibility of the chief appeals officer to convene meetings of appeals officers for the purposes of ensuring consistency. The Department provides some €10.735 million in funding for a number of agencies involved in providing advocacy and information services for people on their social welfare rights and how to process its systems.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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I am not quite sure what the Minister is saying but she seems to be suggesting that, while there is a difficulty, it has been dealt with or is clearly on the way to being dealt with. I certainly do not see that on the ground; nor do the applicants. Currently, there are long waiting times of anything up to ten months for applicants for the various schemes. The review system that was put in place was dealing with cases in three to four weeks at one stage but is now taking 12 to 16 weeks. Appeals are taking around 12 months in many cases. There appears to be a situation in which the vast majority of appeals are being dealt with on a desktop basis and requests for oral hearings are not being granted.

The effect of this is huge stress on applicants and their families. In some cases, which I am sure other Members have come across, applicants and appellants have actually passed away during the course of the process.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. To go through the statistics again, the number of cases finalised in 2009 was 13,500, but that increased to 34,000 in 2011.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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How long are they taking?

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Just so the Deputy understands, there has been an enormous expansion in the number of appeals. The Deputy is probably aware that in 2009 the former Fianna Fáil Government reduced the illness benefit period, which had previously been unlimited, to two years. The consequence is that many people who were in that system are now reaching the limit of their illness benefit. This is one factor that has increased the number of appeals.

The actual reduction in times this year is because of new practices and the extra staff I appointed as soon as I became Minister. However, those extra staff have to be trained. We launched training for deciding officers shortly after I became Minister, so up to now there has been a reduction in processing times of ten weeks, and summary decisions are also now at a fairly high level.

There is one unique feature of the Irish system, which is that people can make multiple applications in regard to the same set of circumstances. We do not tell people that they must provide all the information immediately because we allow them to submit extra evidence. Very often, for example, we get a letter from a GP stating "I support this applicant's request," but that does not really constitute evidence for the deciding officer. The person might then go to someone like the Deputy and be advised that he or she needs a stronger statement that relates to medical evidence to back up the application, and perhaps to get other advice as well, and we allow that information to be resubmitted. This is one of the reasons appeals have been taking so long: many people who lodge an appeal do not initially provide all the information pertinent to their cases.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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I raised two specific matters. The Minister is referring to the review procedure. When that was introduced it took three to four weeks to come to a decision, but it is now taking 12 to 16 weeks, so something is seriously wrong. The overall waiting period is absolutely unacceptable.

The Minister responded to a question I asked some time ago on the matter of emergency applications. People have passed away during the course of this process. It should be possible to allow for emergency applications to be made, but that does not appear to be the case currently.

I brought to the Minister’s attention some time ago the case of an application for carer’s allowance in which the carer had changed. A sister or brother was no longer able to care for the person concerned and a new application was made, which again took 32 weeks to be decided on. I suggested that, while a means test for the carer is necessary, the entire process could have been shortened by acceptance of the original medical evidence.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I recall the Deputy’s interest in that particular case. Unfortunately, the purpose of the carer’s allowance is to provide income support for a named individual who is a full-time carer. Although I understand the point made by the Deputy, it is not technically possible to swap the allowance when a different individual takes over the role of carer. I accept that the circumstances in the same family could be similar, but a different individual is in question. We will examine the matter.

With regard to emergency situations, because of all the work that has been done to improve the processing procedures, the situation should have improved significantly. With regard to the question of presenting the appropriate information at the start of the process, my Department spends approximately €47 million on the annual budget of Citizens' Information and MABS, which, as Deputies are aware, provide much advice to people making applications and appeals. We fund the Irish Congress of Trade Unions information centres around the country at a cost of several million. We also fund the Northside Community Law Centre and, in addition, we fund many community employment schemes which have a social welfare information element. We probably need to examine the situation to see whether we can improve it to ensure that what the Deputy describes as urgent cases, which perhaps stand out because of the gravity of the illnesses involved, can be fast-tracked.

On the broader question of applications that are simply incomplete, some systems do not allow incomplete applications. Where people make repeated applications, this is one of the reasons that, with the explosion in numbers, urgent cases can end up stuck alongside people who resubmit evidence numerous times.