Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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402. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of carer’s allowance and carer’s benefit applications made to her Department from County Carlow from 1 January 2018 to date by month; the number of applications that were refused over the same period; the number of appeals to those refusals; the number overturned in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2921/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Historic information on the number of applications received on a county basis by month is not available. The following table provides a breakdown by year of applications from Co. Carlow between 1st January 2018 to 31st December 2021, based on the customer’s current address.

Carer’s Allowance

Carer’s Benefit

In many cases, more than one decision may be made where a Customer provides further information and/or seeks a review of a decision. It is important that anyone applying for carers should provide as much information as possible when initially submitting their claim.

A breakdown of appeals on a county basis is not available from the Appeal’s Office.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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403. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the percentage of appeals that are won on payments such as pension payments, carer’s allowance and disability and invalidity pensions; the average time for these appeals to be decided upon; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2922/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements.

Appeals which had a favourable outcome for the appellant consist of appeals which were either allowed in full or in part by an Appeals Officer, or which were resolved by way of a revised decision in favour of the appellant by a Deciding Officer/Designated Person.

There are a number of reasons why a decision which was refused at first instance might be successful on appeal and it is not necessarily the case that the first decision was incorrect. It is often the case that new evidence is provided with an appeal and that, as a result, the original decision may be revised by the Deciding Officer or Designated Person.

Where the decision was not revised by the Department in light of the appeal contentions, further evidence is often provided by the appellant as the appeal process proceeds and, in addition, the Appeals Officer may gain insights via an oral hearing which may influence the outcome of the appeal.

The time taken to process an appeal reflects a number of factors including that the appeals process is a quasi-judicial process with Appeals Officers being required to decide all appeals on a ‘de-novo’ basis. In addition, appeals decisions are themselves subject to review by the High Court and decisions have to be formally written up to quasi-judicial standards. Furthermore, a number of new Appeals Officers have joined the Appeals Office over the past 12-18 months to replace staff leaving on retirement and for other reasons. Given the complexity of the appeals process it takes some time for new staff to be trained up and develop expertise. The Chief Appeals Officer has advised me that appeal processing times continue to be a priority for her office.

The statistics required by the Deputy in relation to the percentage of appeals which had a favourable outcome for the appellant in respect of state pension (contributory), state pension (non-contributory), carer's allowance, disability allowance and invalidity pension and the average processing times for these appeals are set out in the attached tables which cover the period January - December 2021.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Appeal Outcomes 2021

Appeal Processing Times 2021 (Weeks)

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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404. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons availing of the fuel allowance by main social welfare payment in County Carlow; her plans to extend eligibility for the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2923/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As part of Budget 2022 I was pleased to announce that we are supporting those most vulnerable who are facing higher energy costs by:

- Increasing the fuel allowance rate of payment by €5 per week with effect from Budget week;

- Increasing the means threshold by €20 to enable more households to qualify for fuel allowance; and

- Reducing the period required to qualify for jobseekers and people on supplementary welfare allowance from 15 months to 12 months.

The information requested by the Deputy in respect of County Carlow is detailed in the table below.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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405. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons in receipt of social welfare payments by payment type and county in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2924/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Detailed information on scheme recipients, including recipients by county, are published each year by my Department in the Annual Statistical Report on Social Welfare Services, which is available at gov.ie/dsp/statistics. The Annual Statistical Report on Social Welfare Services in respect of 2021 is expected to be published in quarter 2 of this year.

The archive on gov.ie contains reports from 1998 through to the latest available report, which is 2020. Quarterly data by county, covering Q1 2014 through to Q3 2021, is also available, and is published on a quarterly basis through the national open data portal, data.gov.ie.

The data requested by the Deputy is set out in the table below and refers to recipients in December 2021. The Deputy should note that Jobseeker's Allowance figures are inclusive of Jobseeker's Transitional Payment figures.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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406. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment in County Carlow who have transitioned to jobseeker’s payments; the number transitioning from the pandemic unemployment payment to various jobseeker’s terms by week since the payment was first introduced and by either jobseeker’s allowance or jobseeker’s benefit, respectively in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2925/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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On 26 October 2021, those who earned less than €200 per week began the process of moving to standard Jobseeker terms. From 09 November 2021, those who earned between €200 and €299.99 per week began this process. Accordingly, the table below details the movements of those in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment on 26 October 2021 and 09 November 2021 to Jobseeker Payments in subsequent weeks. The weeks in the table below refers to the week in which the Jobseeker claim was registered with the Department. The transition process is being carried out in a phased, gradual manner and where a person makes an application for a Jobseeker's payment, they are not transitioned from PUP until such time as there is a decision on their Jobseekers' application. The Deputy should note that the data refers to persons in receipt of Jobseeker's Allowance or Jobseeker's Benefit in county Carlow in the week ending January 16th 2021.