Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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My Department has set measurable targets for the awarding of claims for the majority of schemes under its remit and details of these are in the attached table 1.

The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements.

All claim decisions taken by the Department’s Deciding Officers are appealable to the Chief Appeals Officer. In any year about 85% of all claims are awarded and just 1% are appealed.Nevertheless, the Department is concerned that these cases are dealt with as quickly as possible.

The time taken to process an appeal reflects all aspects of the appeal process including time spent in the Department preparing the appeal submission. The quasi-judicial nature of the appeals system means that there are inevitable time-lags involved. The time taken is proportionate to the complexity of many of the issues under appeal which require a high level of judgement, and the need to ensure due process and natural justice. The system is designed to be flexible and fair and allows for review and submission of further information at all stages which is to the benefit of the appellant.

Appeal processing times are kept under constant scrutiny by the Chief Appeals Officer. Significant effort and resources have been devoted in recent years to reducing the length of the time taken to finalise an appeal. As a result, appeal processing times improved between 2011 and 2017 from 52.5 weeks for an oral hearing in 2011 to 26.4 weeks in 2017 and from 25.1 weeks for a summary decision in 2011 to 19.8 weeks in 2017. The most recent figures for May 2018 are 30 weeks for an oral hearing and 24.6 weeks for a summary decision.

A number of new Appeals Officers have joined the Appeals Office over the past year to replace staff leaving on retirement. Given the complexity of the appeals process it takes some time for new staff to be trained up and develop expertise and this has led to somewhat longer processing times during this period. The Chief Appeals Officer has advised me that appeal processing times will continue to be a priority for her office.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Table 1: Average weeks to award claims at the end of May 2018

Table 2: Appeal Processing Times by Scheme 01 January 2018 - 31 May 2018