Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

96. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her Department will provide evidence that the reduction in positive outcomes for appeals to the Social Welfare Appeals Office related to disability has nothing to do with whether the appeal has been heard orally or conducted in writing. [15196/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an office of my Department which is independent in its decision making functions. My Department processes around two million new claims each year. About 85% of these are successful, in that the customer receives the relevant payment. By comparison, 25,093 appeals were made to the Social Welfare Appeals Office in 2022 and 24,267 appeals were finalised.

Each claim is decided individually based on the information presented to the Deciding Officer and similarly on appeal. In a significant number of instances the appellant provides additional information in the appeals process which, if it had been provided to the Deciding Officer initially may well have resulted in a positive decision from the outset and hence the Department encourages all applicants to provide all relevant information at the point of their initial application.

Under the governing legislation the decision on whether or not to hold an oral hearing is at the discretion of the Appeals Officer to whom an appeal has been assigned.

The relevant schemes for the purpose of this question are disability allowance, invalidity pension and domiciliary care allowance.

The percentage of all Appeals Officer decisions made as a result of oral hearings for these three schemes was 7.8% in 2021 and 6.3% in 2022.

In relation to the outcomes of Appeals Officer decisions on these three schemes, 56.2% were allowed or partly allowed in 2021 and 52.8% were allowed or partly allowed in 2022.

Whilst there has been a reduction in the proportion of allowed and partially outcomes, the SWAO does not believe that there is a causal link - each case is examined on it's own merits and the decisions will differ on a case by case basis. There is ongoing feedback between the SWAO and the Department on any trends in appeals decisions with a view to improving the quality of decisions made. In addition, the SWAO has implemented a quality control system to help ensure that there is a consistent approach followed by Appeals Officers in respect of their appeal decisions.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.