Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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271. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of applications for a domiciliary care allowance declined at first instance; the number appealed; the outcome of those appeals; and the average time for applications under the domiciliary care allowance from initial application to final decision. [47608/17]

Finian McGrath (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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In 2016, the last complete year for which total figures are available, the Domiciliary Care Allowance section received 7,434 applications of which 1,683 were disallowed. This represents 22.5% of the total received. There were 319 appeal submissions to the Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO) in 2016, 162 appeals were allowed and 6 other cases were partially allowed.

The current processing time for Domiciliary Care Allowance is approximately 17 weeks. It is hoped to reduce this further over the coming weeks.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.