At any one time there are some 6,000 appeals before the Social Welfare appeals office. The average time to process all appeals at present is 21 weeks.
The appeals process involves the putting together of the necessary evidence to enable the appeal to be determined, the scheduling of hearings where necessary and the making and notification of decisions. In putting together the evidence it is frequently necessary to arrange for further investigations to be carried out or for the appeals office to obtain further information from the Department and/or the appellant. In some cases adjournments are sought by the appellant or his/her legal representative. All of the procedures involve delay but are designed to ensure that full information is available to the appeals officer in making his decision. Where the appeals officer decides that the issue cannot be resolved without an oral hearing, as happens in 56 per cent of all cases, a further delay inevitably occurs.
The social welfare appeals system is a quasijudicial one and the procedures involved are designed to ensure that every appellant's case gets full and satisfactory consideration. The inevitable time-lag inherent in such a process is governed by statutory and fair procedure requirements.
Processing times for appeals here compare favourably with the experience of other countries in this regard. However it is a major objective of the Social Welfare appeals office to achieve further improvement in this regard. However, at all times it is necessary to ensure that progress in this regard is achieved in a manner that is not in conflict with or at a cost to the demands of justice and the requirement that every appeal be fully investigated and examined on all its merits.
Appeals officers are required to have a high level of knowledge and expertise in relation to the social welfare system. Four additional appeals officers were appointed during the second half of 1997. In recent years officers in some regional locations were appointed as appeals officers, including two of the additional appointments mentioned. There are no plans, however, to restructure the appeals office on a regional basis.
The Department and the Social Welfare appeals office are considering the scope for further reducing the time taken to process appeals and the future staffing needs of the office will be considered in this regard.
