Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, my Department can make additional needs payments to help meet expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income. This is an over-arching administrative term used to refer to exceptional and urgent needs payments, and certain supplements to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met from a person’s own resources and are deemed to be necessary.

The scheme is demand led. Payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme, taking into account the requirements of the legislation, and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance.

In general, additional needs payments are not intended to cover circumstances where responsibility rests with another Government Department or Agency. However, an additional needs payment can be made to help meet essential expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income.

The payment is available to both social welfare recipients and also to families on low incomes including persons who work 30 hours or more. Information on how to apply for the payment is available at www.gov.ie/en/service/4eb45-additional-needs-payment/.

I trust this clarifies the matter.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 310 and 311 together.

Jobseeker's Benefit is a payment for people between 18 and 66 years of age who become fully or partly unemployed and have paid sufficient pay-related social insurance (PRSI) contributions.

Jobseeker's Allowance is a means-tested payment made to people who are unemployed.

Over the 12-month period from October 2021 to September 2022, there were 112,655 claims awarded and 13,336 claims disallowed for Jobseeker's Allowance.

In the same time period, there were 129,954 claims awarded and 8,382 claims disallowed for Jobseeker's Benefit.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Working Family Payment (WFP) is a weekly tax-free payment for employees with children which supports people in low paid employment. The WFP is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid workers with child dependents, and to offer a financial incentive to take up employment.

It is a targeted measure that is directly linked to household income and therefore directly supports low-income working families. There are approximately 45,000 families with 99,000 children who are currently in receipt of WFP. The estimated spend of WFP in 2022 is €349 million.

Budget 2023 included the provision of a once off €500 cost of living lump sum payment to all WFP recipients and is due to be paid on the week commencing 14^thNovember.

An increase in the income limits applicable to WFP customers was also announced in Budget 2023. This increase will take effect from 5^thJanuary 2023 and will see the income limit for all family sizes increase by €40. This will see an increase in payment across all awarded claims of €24 per week while also increasing the income qualification thresholds for customers.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is a monthly payment in respect of a child aged under 16, who has a severe disability and requires continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of that normally required by a child of the same age and the child must be likely to require this level of care for at least 12 consecutive months. Eligibility for DCA is determined primarily by reference to the degree of additional care and attention required by the child rather than the child's disability.

The total number of DCA applications received in the past 12 months was 10,229. The number of applications that were disallowed in the same period was 3,819.

It should be noted that in many instances where the initial application is disallowed, the claim can subsequently be awarded in instances where further information or medical evidence is provided by the applicant.

It should also be noted that there has been a 15% increase in the number of applications over the last year and that DCA section has reduced processing times to 6 weeks in that period.

I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department can make additional needs payments to help meet expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income. This is an overarching term used to refer to exceptional and urgent needs payments, and certain supplements to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met from the client’s own resources and are deemed to be necessary.

The schemes are demand led and payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance.

The data indicates that almost 66,000 applications ANPS have been awarded from the start of the year to end-September, while almost 9,000 claims have been disallowed in the same period.

Any person who considers they may have an entitlement to an additional needs payment is encouraged to contact their local community welfare service. There is a National Community Welfare Contact Centre in place - 0818-607080 - which will direct callers to the appropriate office.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

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.

All claim decisions taken by the Department’s Deciding Officers and Designated Persons are appealable to the Chief Appeals Officer. In any year about 85% of all claims are awarded by the Department and just 2% are appealed. Nevertheless, the Department endeavors to ensure that these cases are dealt with as quickly as possible.

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.

Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to reforming the appeal process in recent years. As a result, average appeal processing times have generally improved between 2018 and 2021 from 30.0 weeks for an oral hearing in 2018 to 25.5 weeks in 2021, and from 24.8 weeks for a summary decision in 2018 to 13.9 weeks in 2021. The figures for the period January to September 2022 were 25.4 weeks for oral hearing decisions and 15.0 weeks for summary decisions. Further improvement in appeals processing times is a priority for the Chief Appeals Officer.

Currently, the number of Appeals Officers (full-time equivalent) is 40 which is similar to the position over the last two years. 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 can take some time for new staff to be trained up and develop expertise.

The desire to process appeals quickly has to be balanced with the competing demand to ensure that decisions are consistent and of high quality and made in accordance with the legislative provisions and the general principles of fair procedures and natural justice. The tables below provide the average appeal processing times for appeals by scheme type for the year January 2022 to the end of September 2022.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

Appeal Processing Times by Scheme 1 January 2022– 30 September 2022

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Carer’s Allowance is a payment to people on low incomes who are caring full-time for a person who needs support because of age, disability or illness (including mental illness). The person being cared for must require full-time care and attention.

Over the 12-month period from October 2021 to September 2022, there were 13,810 claims awarded and 7,623 claims disallowed for Carer's Allowance.

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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People who are in receipt of a social welfare payment in a post office continue to be paid at their nominated post office for the duration of their claim. Occasionally, if a person cannot be contacted or fails to respond to correspondence from the Department a person’s payment may be transferred to another local post office until contact has been established. This means that the payment is immediately available for collection once contact is made.

Case specific information, including whether a post office change has been made, is not collated centrally by my Department. Therefore, it is not possible to provide the information that the Deputy is seeking as the information requested is not available.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.