Written answers
Tuesday, 27 November 2012
Department of Social Protection
Social Welfare Appeals
Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide data in terms of the number of appeals being processed by the Appeals office in the past 6 months; if she can provide details in tabular format of the various benefits; the number of these that are approved and the number that are refused; if she is satisfied with the time taken to process appeals; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52770/12]
Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The number of appeals decided by Appeals officers and their outcome by scheme type for the period 1st May 2012 to 31st October 2012 is given in the table below.
The current average turnaround time for appeals dealt with by way of a summary decision is 27 weeks, and for those requiring an oral hearing is 40 weeks.
There has been a rapid and sustained increase in the number of appeals received from 2009 to date which 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, including the assignment of 15 additional Appeals Officers, retaining 8 retired experienced officers for 18 months ending December 2011, improving business processes and implementing a new operating model.
As a result of these measures, there has been significant increase in the number of appeals finalised from an average of 13,500 in 2009 to 34,027 in 2011 and, when compared to 2011, the processing times have reduced by an overall 10.2 weeks in the nine months to September 2012 (the oral hearing time is down by 12.5 weeks and the summary decision time is up by 2.3 weeks).
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, overall, to reduce the processing times for dealing with appeals.
Table - Outcome of Appeals Processed 1st May 2012 to 31st October 2012
| Scheme | Allowed | Partially Allowed | Allowed Revised Decision | Disallowed | Total Processed | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
O. H.1 | Sum Dec2 | Total | O.H. | Sum Dec | Total | - | O. H. | Sum Dec | Total | - | |
| Adoptive Benefit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Blind Pension | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 13 |
| Carers Allowance | 176 | 154 | 330 | 52 | 797 | 68 | 309 | 173 | 226 | 399 | 1106 |
| Carers Benefit | 12 | 10 | 22 | 3 | 47 | 5 | 47 | 8 | 12 | 20 | 94 |
| Child Benefit | 30 | 36 | 66 | 8 | 368 | 23 | 96 | 38 | 241 | 279 | 464 |
| Disability Allowance | 566 | 564 | 1130 | 31 | 2,214 | 49 | 454 | 363 | 672 | 1035 | 2668 |
| Illness Benefit | 108 | 66 | 174 | 7 | 538 | 10 | 747 | 152 | 202 | 354 | 1285 |
| Domiciliary Care | 265 | 181 | 446 | 8 | 917 | 19 | 512 | 160 | 292 | 452 | 1429 |
| Deserted Wives Benefit | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Deserted Wives Allowance | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| Farm Assist | 11 | 4 | 15 | 8 | 91 | 10 | 25 | 22 | 44 | 66 | 116 |
| Bereavement Grant | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 30 | 30 | 40 |
| Family Income Supplement | 6 | 9 | 15 | 2 | 73 | 5 | 53 | 6 | 47 | 53 | 126 |
| Invalidity Pension | 288 | 386 | 674 | 2 | 990 | 4 | 194 | 107 | 205 | 312 | 1184 |
| Liable Relatives | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 17 | 19 | 24 |
| One Parent Family Payment | 50 | 28 | 78 | 17 | 286 | 23 | 133 | 93 | 92 | 185 | 419 |
| Maternity Benefit | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 9 | 12 |
| State Pension (Contributory) | 7 | 10 | 17 | 8 | 101 | 11 | 6 | 22 | 51 | 73 | 107 |
| State Pension (Non-Con) | 5 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 40 | 0 | 41 | 20 | 14 | 34 | 81 |
| State Pension Transition | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 8 |
| Occupational Injury Benefit | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 |
| Occupational Injury Benefit (Medical) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Disablement Pension | 52 | 6 | 58 | 19 | 6 | 25 | 35 | 58 | 42 | 100 | 218 |
| Incapacity Supplement | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 |
| Guardian's Payment Con | 4 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 17 | 26 |
| Guardian's Payment Non - Con | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 11 |
| Pre-Retirement Allowance | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| Jobseeker's Allowance (Means) | 129 | 54 | 183 | 54 | 37 | 91 | 723 | 256 | 704 | 960 | 1957 |
| Jobseeker's Allowance | 185 | 214 | 399 | 45 | 35 | 80 | 478 | 250 | 451 | 701 | 1658 |
| Jobseeker's Benefit | 45 | 45 | 90 | 11 | 7 | 18 | 274 | 79 | 269 | 348 | 730 |
| Respite Care Grant | 24 | 20 | 44 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 37 | 29 | 45 | 74 | 156 |
| Insurability of Employment | 8 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 26 | 38 | 64 | 86 |
| Supplementary Welfare Allowance | 197 | 323 | 520 | 38 | 41 | 79 | 505 | 270 | 1435 | 1705 | 2809 |
| Treatment Benefit | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| Survivor's Pension (Con) | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 13 |
| Survivor's Pension (Non-Con) | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 16 |
| Widow's Parent Grant | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| - | 2181 | 2117 | 4,298 | 318 | 209 | 527 | 4,714 | 2170 | 5173 | 7343 | 16,882 |
1 O.H. – decided following Oral Hearing
2 Sum Dec – decided by Summary Decision
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