Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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1314.To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of appeals currently on hand in respect of means tested social welfare payments, in tabular form. [31985/24]

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.

The Chief Appeals Officer continually monitors the number of appeals on hands and processing times. Every effort is made to ensure that appeals are dealt with expeditiously at every stage of the process and processing times are kept to a minimum. However, the drive for efficiency must 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.

In any year, about 85% of all claims are awarded by the department and around 1% of a total of approximately 2 million decisions made by the Department are appealed.