Niamh Smyth (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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197. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the measures in place to help with reducing delay for appeals cases that are ongoing for more than three months. [6401/23]

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.

The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that 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 approximately 1% are appealed. The Department endeavors to ensure that these cases are dealt with as quickly as possible.

The appeals process is quasi-judicial and decisions have to be formally written up to a quasi-judicial standard and are subject to review by the High Court. Accordingly the desire to process appeals quickly must be balanced with the competing demand to ensure that decisions are consistent, well reasoned and of high quality and made in accordance with the legislative provisions and the general principles of fair procedures and natural justice.

The quasi-judicial nature of the appeals process also means that each aspect of the process takes time to complete. Appeals legislation requires that the appeal must be sent to the Department for a submission from the Deciding Officer who originally decided the case. The appeal contentions will be reviewed at this point. In 2021 49.3% of appeals which had a favorable outcome resulted from revised decisions by Deciding Officers at this stage. In 2022, 53.2% of appeals which had a favorable outcome resulted from revised decisions by Deciding Officers at this stage.

Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to improvements in the appeal process in recent years. As a result, average appeal processing times have generally improved between 2018 and 2022 from 30.0 weeks for an oral hearing in 2018 to 26.0 weeks in 2022, and from 24.8 weeks for a summary decision in 2018 to 15.0 weeks in 2022. The average time for all appeals finalised in 2022 was 14.9 weeks.

There is active engagement between the Appeals Office and the Department to ensure that this process operates efficiently and where the Deciding Officer's decision is not revised in favour of the appellant that the appeal file papers are provided as quickly as possible for consideration by an Appeals Officer. In 2022 the breakdown of the duration of the average appeal was 6.4 weeks in the Appeals Office and 8.5 weeks in the Department. For December 2022 the durations were slightly lower at 5.7 weeks in the Appeals Office and 8.0 weeks in the Department.

As of February 2023 there are 42 Appeals Officers serving in the Office, along with the Chief Appeals Officer and two Deputy Chief Appeals Officers. Since the start of 2021 a total of 14 very experienced Appeals Officers have left the Appeals Office. In the same period a total of 13 new Appeals Officers have been appointed. Given the complexity of the appeals process significant time and resources are been directed towards the training and development of these new staff which in due course will have a positive impact on appeal processing times.

Further improvements in appeals processing times are a priority for the Chief Appeals Officer.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.