Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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1767. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he is aware of long waiting times currently in his Department regarding the settling of appeals, particularly in terms of appeals on carers’ allowance and invalidity pension and other benefits, causing financial hardship to those waiting for a decision; the plans he has to tackle these long wait times and ensure a more efficient and timely appeals process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41262/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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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.

Appeals where customers may not have recourse to Supplementary Welfare Allowance or are particularly vulnerable are currently being prioritised. This approach has resulted in the successful reduction of 1,431 Domiciliary Care Allowance appeals on hand at the 31st March 2025 to less than 529 at the 30th June 2025, the majority of which are appeals registered within the last 12 weeks. A similar process is now underway for Carer's Allowance appeals.

Overall, 24,211 appeals have been processed at 30th June this year compared to 10,738 in the first six months of 2024.

The time taken to process an appeal includes all aspects of the appeal process. This includes referring the appeal contentions and any additional documentation provided back to the relevant scheme area of the Department for review. Where the first instance decision is not revised in favour of the appellant, the appeal is then considered by the Appeals Officer which may require the holding of an Oral Hearing. A significant proportion of cases are revised by the Department in favour of the appellant during the review process.

New Appeal Regulations which have come into effect from the 28th of April 2025 have increased the time a customer has to submit their appeal from 21 to 60 days. This will allow customers a longer period to prepare their appeal and gather relevant documentation. In addition, a new appeals business process and IT system has recently been implemented. The new system provides online capabilities to provide a more efficient and streamlined service for people availing of services.

In tandem with this, the number of staff processing appeals has been increased significantly. An additional 20 Appeals Officers were appointed at the end of last year. These officers are in addition to the team of 44 officers already in place. Following a period of training they are now actively processing appeals. This is a significant increase of 45% in staffing levels and will, in time, further help to reduce processing times.

I trust this clarifies the matter.