Written answers

Wednesday, 7 July 2010

Department of Social and Family Affairs

Social Welfare Appeals

12:00 pm

Photo of Róisín ShortallRóisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 290: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of appeals officers as opposed to the general staff number in the social welfare appeals office at year end in each of the last five years and at present; and the average annual number of cases finalised per appeals officer in each of these years. [30617/10]

Photo of Róisín ShortallRóisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 291: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of social welfare appeals finalised to date in 2010; and the number currently outstanding. [30629/10]

Photo of Róisín ShortallRóisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 292: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the workload capacity on an annual basis, in terms of appeals finalised, of the social welfare appeals office once each of the retired social welfare appeals officers are recruited back into the office (details supplied). [30660/10]

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos 290 to 292, inclusive, together.

The number of Appeals Officers in the Social Welfare Appeals Office, the number of cases finalised by Appeals Officers and the average number per Appeals Officer in the years 2005 – 2009 and to date in 2010 is given in table 1 attached to this reply.

On the basis of performance to date in 2010 (see table 2 attached to this reply), it is expected that the number of cases finalised in 2010 would be in the region of 24,000.

As outlined in my reply to previous questions, it has been decided to use experienced retired staff strictly on a short term basis to supplement the current resources and the services of eight retired officers have now been secured on a part-time basis. These Officers are being assigned to cases which can be dealt with on a summary basis and, although it is obviously too early to estimate with accuracy the numbers of cases they will finalise, it is expected to be upwards of 5,000 cases in 2010. This would bring to 29,000 the number of cases expected to be finalised in 2010 as against 18,000 in 2009.

TABLE 1

YearNo. of Appeals Officers at 31st DecemberNo. of appeals finalised by Appeals OfficersAverage no. per Appeals Officer
2005178,484499
2006189,100505
2007178,738514
2008179,423554
20091910,027527
2010206,043302

The 2010 number reflects only six months work. It should be noted that the number of Appeals Officers serving reflects the position at end year which may be different from the average number of officers serving during the course of the year. Five experienced Appeals Officers retired during 2009. Because of the quasi-judicial nature and complexity of the work there can be a relatively long lead-in time before Appeals Officers become fully competent to deal with the full range of cases coming to the Office. TABLE 2

@ JUNE 30thNo. of AO DecisionsNo. of Revised DecisionsNo. WithdrawnTotal
20094,9462,3061,1838,435
20106,0433,7051,58211,330
Increase22%60%33%34%

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