Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions.

Significant efforts and resources have been devoted to reforming the appeal process in recent years.

Further improvements in appeals processing times are a priority for the Chief Appeals Officer. A significant Appeals Modernisation Project is currently under way the goal of which is to streamline and enhance the end-to-end appeals process for the customer, the Social Welfare Appeals Office and business areas across the Department.

The following table provides the number of Carer's Allowance appeals registered, the number of Carer's Allowance appeals allowed, and the number of Carer's Allowance appeals part allowed from 2020 to 2023.

The Deputy should note that not all appeals registered are decided on. A number of appeals are cancelled, withdrawn by the appellant, and withdrawn due to the Department revising their decision.

I trust this clarifies matters the matter for the Deputy.