Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent)
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123. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of applicants awaiting payment following successful appeals to the independent social welfare appeals office; if he will provide an indication of the number of such applications per payment; the measures her Department is taking to ensure that this backlog is dealt with in view of the fact that the majority of applicants that have already waited up to 12 months for a decision on their appeal and are now forced to wait months for further assessments to be carried out. [28309/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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My Department aims to process and pay as appropriate all successful appeals returned by the Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO). In general, across schemes, there is no issue with implementing successful appeals.

However, in the disability allowance and invalidity pension scheme areas, temporary delays are currently being experienced by successful appellants. These delays are arising due to the large number of backlogged new claims that have been processed over the last year, resulting in high levels of appeals. There are approximately 1,000 cases across the two schemes, awaiting payment at present following successful appeals. Additional staff resources have been assigned to clear these appeals and it is envisaged that all cases will be actioned within the next 4 weeks.