Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 280: To ask the Minister for Social Protection when a decision will be reached in relation to an application lodged for appeal in January 2009; the reason the applicant was refused supplementary welfare allowance in the interim period; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [11640/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that a jobseeker's allowance appeal from the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who proposes to hold an oral hearing in this case. There was a significant increase in the number of appeals received by the Social Welfare Appeals Office between 2007, when the intake was 14,070, and 2010, when the intake rose to 32,432. This has had a significant impact on the processing time for appeals which require oral hearings. In order to be fair to all appellants, they are dealt with in strict chronological order. In the context of dealing with the considerable number of appeals now on hands, the Department has made a further nine additional appointments to the office in recent weeks. While every effort is being made to deal with the large numbers awaiting oral hearing as quickly as possible, it is not possible to give a date for when the person's oral hearing will be heard, but s/he will be informed when arrangements have been made.

The supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA) is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Apart from a number of excluded categories, anyone in the State who satisfies a habitual residency condition and a means test, and has registered for employment, may qualify for a weekly payment of SWA unless they have a physical or mental disability and can prove unemployment. People in a number of categories are specifically excluded from receiving SWA, including people in full-time work, people in full-time education and people involved in trade disputes. A person is considered to be in full-time education if he/she is attending a course of study as specified under section 148 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005. At the time that the person concerned applied for SWA in 2009, he was in full-time employment and his application was refused. The person concerned is now an adult dependant on his wife's current SWA claim, pending a determination of her application for Jobseeker's Allowance.