Michael Ring
Question:241 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs when an oral hearing will be scheduled for an appeal by a person (details supplied) in County Mayo. [2222/00]
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Appeals.
The person's application for unemployment benefit was disallowed by a deciding officer on the basis that she had not suffered a substantial loss of employment.
The person concerned appealed the decision to the social welfare appeals office. An oral hearing of the case will take place when an appeals officer next is in the area and the person concerned will be notified shortly.
Breeda Moynihan-Cronin
Question:242 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if his attention has been drawn to the hardship being caused to people awaiting decisions on their social welfare appeals due to the length of time the process takes; the proposals, if any, he has to speed up the process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2225/00]
As the Deputy is aware, the social welfare appeals process is quasi-judicial and is governed by legislation and case law and the equally binding requirements of natural justice and the courts. These procedures, statutory and otherwise, are designed to ensure that every appeal gets due and fair consideration. Such a process is inevitably time consuming.
The average time taken to process appeals during the past year was 21 weeks. While this did not represent any deterioration on the 1998 position, the substantial increase in the number of appeals received in 1999 – up by over 10% on the 1998 figure – meant that no inroads in the processing time could be achieved.
Two additional appeals officers were appointed in 1997 to deal with a then increasing workload and I have assigned two more this month. There may be a time lag before these increases are reflected in reduced waiting periods but it is anticipated that improvement can be achieved within the next few months.