Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 May 2022
471. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection if the process of appeals for social welfare applications has changed regionally and nationally; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27710/22]
View answerI understand that the Deputy has clarified that this question relates to whether any structural process changes have taken place regarding the administration of the appeals system, including whether there has been any centralisation of the function and, in particular, in relation to the supplementary welfare scheme.
The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. There have been no recent changes to the structure of the Appeals Office.
The Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme is the safety net within the overall social welfare system in that it provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependents. Supports provided under the SWA scheme can consist of a basic weekly payment, a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of certain expenses, as well as single exceptional needs payments (ENPs) and urgent needs payments (UNPs). Applications made under the SWA Scheme are administered by Designated Persons (DP) in the Community Welfare Service in the Department.
Determinations made by Designated Persons in relation to claims made under Sections 196, 197 and 198 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 i.e. Basic SWA and all Supplements, can be appealed to the Social Welfare Appeals Office under Section 311 of that Act and this has not changed. Appeals from customers who are dissatisfied with the decision on their application are reviewed by the Designated Person to assess if new information has been made available and, where the decision on the application remains unchanged, the appeal is sent to the Social Welfare Appeals Office for consideration by an Appeals Officer.
Decisions made in relation to claims made under Sections 200, 201 and 202 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, namely ENPs and UNPs are not appelable to the Appeals Office but can be reviewed by a SWA Reviewing Officer under Section 323 of that Act. In order to make this process more accessible for customers, they may now send their request for a review to a PO Box in the Department using a FREEPOST service. The request for the review of the Designated Person’s decision is then sent to an independent SWA Reviewing Officer to objectively review all of the information provided by the customer and assess the decision made by the Designated Person. The only change to this process has been the provision of a FREEPOST PO Box service for the customer.
The Department's National Processing Team (NPT) now process all new claims for jobseekers payments and one parent family payment. If a customer appeals a decision in relation to one of these schemes their appeal is registered by the Appeals Office and sent to the National Processing Team. The decision giving rise to the appeal is reviewed by the NPT Appeals Team initially and forwarded to the Appeals Office for consideration if the decision is not revised in favour of the appellant.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
