Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 February 2023
11. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of applications received in 2022 for disability allowance, domiciliary care allowance and carer’s allowance; the number that were awarded; and the number of applications under appeal, in tabular form. [5997/23]
View answerWill the Minister outline in tabular form the number of applications received in 2022 for disability allowance, domiciliary care allowance and carer's allowance, the number that were awarded, and the number of applications under appeal? I will not have sight of those as we are here, but I will have sight of those in the reply later on.
In 2022, 26,021 disability allowance claims were registered with my Department, with 13,817 claims awarded and a total of 5,637 appeals. Domiciliary care allowance claims registered stood at 10,524, with 7,872 claims awarded and 2,084 appeals. There were 22,841 claims registered for carer's allowance, with 14,921 claims awarded and 3,521 appeals.
During 2022, the Department continued to receive an increased number of claims across all of these schemes. Claim volumes for disability allowance increased by more than 26% year on year and more than 8% on its pre-pandemic level in 2019. Claims volumes for domiciliary care allowance and for carer's allowance increased by more than 15% and 16% respectively compared with 2021, and between 18% and 21% on their pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Notwithstanding these increases in workloads, improvements in processing times made in recent years were maintained, with claim decisions being made in an average of six weeks compared with 12 to 19 weeks in 2017, and ten to 14 weeks in 2019.
It should be noted that the number of claims awarded include cases that were previously disallowed or refused and subsequently found eligible on review or appeal. In addition, the total number of claims received in a calendar year will not equal the number of claims awarded or disallowed in the same year. Claims awarded, disallowed or appealed may relate to claims received in previous calendar years.
I welcome the comprehensive set of figures there, but it is glaring that across disability allowance, domiciliary care allowance, and carer's allowance applications, there are approximately 5,000 appeals for disability allowance, 2,000 appeals for domiciliary care allowance, and 3,500 for carer's allowance. I have posed the question because if there is a way of further streamlining the process, particularly for parents where applications are made for domiciliary care allowance, this would be very helpful. This is on the basis that the weight of medical evidence that must be supplied is burdensome. People understand they have to do it, and obviously we must have checks and balances to ensure the scheme delivers what it is supposed to deliver. Nobody argues against that. However, when a decision is made by a Department's deciding medical officer, very often it poses questions as to the legitimacy of that decision. Given the weight of the medical evidence that has been submitted, people feel understandably annoyed where their initial applications are turned down and, in many cases, the decisions are overturned on appeal. There are still quite a number that do not reach oral hearing level. With the domiciliary care allowance in particular, the fact that 2,000 applications have gone to appeal has to tell us something about the system and whether it is working.
Each scheme has multiple conditionality such as medical, caring, means and residency. A key criteria is that the applicant satisfies the medical-related conditionality. To assess this, the Department employs its own team of more than 30 doctors who have a mix of skills and specialties and who are specially trained to assess the impact of a medical condition on a person's capacity to work or on his or her care needs. The focus is not to disallow a claim but to try to understand the impact of the underlying condition on the claimant or the person in their care.
Often when a claim is appealed, we find that applicants provide additional information to that provided with the initial claim. This is the main reason appeals succeed. There are a number of reasons applicants do not submit this information with the initial claim, partly because they may not have had reports from specialists or consultants available to them when they made the claim but they wished to establish a claim date as early as possible. That is understandable. People sometimes say to them to get their claim in, they put the claim in, and then follow up with the additional information, because when the claim is granted it is backdated.
What we have is a situation where one consultant or medical professional is overturning the decision of another. This, effectively, is what is happening when the medical examiner looks at the case. For example, I go to my consultant who knows me, has a relationship with me and completely understands the nature of my complaint. That could then be overturned by somebody who never meets the applicant, who never interacts with the applicant and who is making a decision against the applicant. It has always been thus, and maybe it is time for us, given that the Minister is reforming in nature, perhaps to look at this again. There are three very particular schemes for which thousands of people make applications where decisions are made on medical grounds on the basis of what is arguably a desktop exercise. If the Minister saw fit to look at that again and perhaps review it, that would be very helpful.
On the same question I invite Deputies Murnane O' Connor and Durkan.
I am of the same opinion that it needs to be looked at. There are so many schemes, including the carer's allowance. I know of so many people going into appeals where the Department wants further information. There is a far higher refusal rate than I have ever seen before. I would question this.
When we look at it, people who are caring are looking after people instead of them being in hospitals or in homes, and yet every time a decision is appealed the Department wants further information. It is also being means tested, which is a huge issue. It is of course the same for the domiciliary allowance or any of the schemes.
I am dealing with a lovely lady at the moment who has a child with a disability. Although the child is actually in school for a few hours, this lady had to give up work to be the carer. This lady qualifies for nothing because her husband earns barely over the limit.
As others have said, we need to look at certain schemes to see what we can do to help those who are vulnerable and doing their best to help the system. The system is letting them down.
I agree with the concerns expressed by the others. There needs to be a review by the Minister of the regulations, the way they are applied and the outcomes. Having attended at appeal hearings over many years, I have seen the basis on which decisions are made. On one occasion not so long ago I attended a hearing where the person won the appeal only for it to be overturned by an executive officer who, to my mind, had no authority to do so other than a conflict whereby the same officer was adjudicating on their own decision, as it were.
Will the Minister, if she gets a chance, look at that area where there could be a difficulty created for people who have a life-long commitment to caring for relatives?
I thank the Deputies. I hear the concerns they raise. I had one case in my constituency office of a child who had been diagnosed from birth with a particular disorder but the medical evidence did not stack up and they did not get the disability allowance. They were moving from domiciliary care to disability care but they did not get it. They did not provide the information. I told them they would have to go back to their specialist and get a letter. They said they would not go back. They said that what they had supplied should have been sufficient. Unfortunately, as we all know, doctors differ. I will certainly take on board what the Deputies have and I am happy to take a look at it.
Applicants should not withhold information in order to have additional information to submit if they need to appeal. They must not do that. Submit all of the information in the first instance. Sometimes the medical information is not sufficient and they must go back to get more information. A lot of the cases are actually granted on appeal. I would say to all applicants to submit as much information as possible with the initial claim and I ask all public representatives to do the same. The Department is also working closely with the advocacy groups, including the DCA Warriors and Carers Ireland to review and change its application forms. If the Deputies have any ideas they would like to give to me, I will be happy to take them.
