Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 14: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the numbers of appeals outstanding for jobseeker's allowance and family income support schemes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [29159/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I am informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that there are currently 4,077 jobseekers assistance appeals and 88 family income supplement appeals outstanding. These figures must be seen against a background where there has been a very significant increase in the number of appeals received in the Social Welfare Appeals Office since 2007, when the intake was 14,070, to 32,432 in 2010.

In April of this year the Department appointed 9 additional Appeals Officers who, together with the 3 appointments made to the Office in 2010, brought the total number of appeals officers serving in the Office to 29. In addition, since July 2010, 8 retired appeals officers, equating to a further 3 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 review, and that the processes are continuously being enhanced to reduce the backlogs in the Office and, overall, to reduce the processing times for dealing with appeals. In that regard some 3,000 cases, registered prior to 31/12/10, have been ring-fenced and a team of 10 of the Office's most experienced appeals officers have been freed from all other work in the Office and will concentrate on clearing this backlog. This project commenced on July 1st. Also, some 70% of appeals cases are now decided by way of summary decision which, because of the logistics involved in organizing oral hearings, greatly reduces the overall processing times.

As a result of the various initiatives taken, 18,236 decisions were made by appeals officers in the first nine months of 2011, in comparison to 12,692 for the same period in 2010 and the backlog of cases awaiting determination has reduced from 20,274 at the beginning of the year to 17,651 at 30th September 2011.