Social Welfare Appeals

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 19 January 2011

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

Ceisteanna (114, 115, 116)

Seymour Crawford

Ceist:

158 Deputy Seymour Crawford asked the Minister for Social Protection the length of time it takes for an appeal to be heard for someone applying for farm assist, carer’s allowance or any other social welfare payments that may be appealed; if he is satisfied that someone should have to wait up to 18 months to have their appeal dealt with and the steps he is taking to resolve the situation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2840/11]

David Stanton

Ceist:

161 Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Social Protection, further to Parliamentary Question No. 487 of 8 July 2010, if he will provide a breakdown of the total number of staff employed by the social welfare appeals office in 2008, 2009, 2010 and to date in 2011 respectively per grade; the number of additional staff, appeals officers, administration staff and so on, who have been allocated to the social welfare appeals office to deal with the backlog of appeals since January 2010; if the eight retired officers have also begun working in this office; if there are plans to allocate further additional staff to the office; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2969/11]

David Stanton

Ceist:

162 Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Social Protection, further to Parliamentary Question No. 487 of 8 July 2010, if he will provide a breakdown of the total number of appeals received by the social welfare appeals office by each payment respectively in 2010 and the number received to date in 2011; if he will further provide a breakdown of the total number of appeals currently awaiting decision by the social welfare appeals office per respective social welfare payment; the current average time waiting time for oral hearing; the average time it takes to fully process appeals for each respective payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2970/11]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Social Protection (Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 158, 161 and 162 together.

Figures in regard to the numbers of cases received and outstanding, by scheme, for 2010 and the number of staff in the Social Welfare Appeals Office, are given in the tables with this reply. Figures for 2011 in regard to the numbers of cases received and outstanding, per scheme, are not yet readily available.

I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that the average waiting for an appeal dealt with by way of a summary decision is 27.4 weeks, while the average time to process an oral hearing is 45.6 weeks. These processing times are calculated from the registration date of the appeal to the date of its finalisation and include all activities during this period including time spent in the Department for comments by the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal put forward by the appellant and any further investigation, examination or assessment by the Department's Inspectors and Medical Assessors that is deemed necessary. A considerable period of time is added to the process when an oral hearing is required because of the logistics involved in this process.

A number of initiatives have been taken in recent years to deal with the increases in numbers of cases in the Appeals process. In addition to the provision of extra staff, more emphasis was placed on dealing with appeals on a summary basis so as to increase productivity. As a result, the number of appeals dealt with by way of oral hearing was reduced from 59% in 2009 to 31.5% in 2010.

The Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2010 facilitated the use of experienced retired former Appeals Officers, on a strictly temporary basis to assist in reducing the backlog of Social Welfare Appeals cases. The matter of assigning additional Appeals Officers is kept under constant review but any consideration of extra assignments must be taken in the context of overall government policy on civil service numbers. A project to improve the business processes in the office was also undertaken which has resulted in a number of improvements being implemented and significant enhancements have been made to the office's IT and phone systems.

As a result of all of these initiatives, a total of 17,499 appeals were finalised by Appeals Officers in 2010 in comparison to 10,027 for 2009. When revised decisions and withdrawn cases are taken into account the total number of cases finalised in 2010 was 28,166 in comparison to 17,787 for 2009.

I am assured by the Chief Appeals Officer that she is keeping current processes under continuous review with a view to achieving a more effective throughput of appeals, while ensuring that any progress does not conflict with due process in terms of the rights of appellants and adherence to the requirements of natural justice.

	Appeals Received by Scheme 2010	Appeals awaiting decision at 1/1/2011	Average time take to process appeals by summary decision by scheme in 2010	Average time take to process appeals following oral hearing by scheme in 2010
Adoptive Benefit	2	2	32.6	—
Blind Pension	13	7	19.8	39.4
Carers Allowance	2,969	2,145	26.9	47.3
Carers Benefit	180	73	21.6	44.2
Child Benefit	1,050	1,187	48.4	63.1
Disability Allowance	4,568	3,046	30.8	51.1
Illness Benefit	5,313	2,658	39.2	56.4
Domiciliary Care	1,827	1,386	26.8	49.1
Deserted Wives Benefit	14	14	33.9	29.0
Farm Assist	244	163	23.2	50.7
Bereavement Grant	59	30	25.1	—
Family Income Supplement	224	105	21.4	29.0
Homemakers	1	—	15.3	—
Invalidity Pension	998	612	40.9	59.7
Liable Relatives	16	22	35.9	—
One Parent Family Payment	1,085	819	30.2	49.4
Maternity Benefit	29	21	37.7	—
State Pension (Contributory)	258	110	29.6	49.2
State Pension (Non-Cont)	353	230	26.5	49.9
State Pension (Transition)	7	11	30.7	—
Occupational Injury Benefit	22	18	55.7	53.8
Occupational Injury Ben (Med)	22	49	32.5	67.9
Disablement Pension	343	334	27.4	51.9
Death Benefit (Pension)	—	—	—	69.6
Incapacity Supplement	15	15	—	30.7
Guardian’s Payment (Con)	26	26	25.3	48.3
Guardian’s Payment (NonCon)	7	9	24.3	42.2
Pre-Retirement Allowance	2	1	—	—
Jobseeker’s Allow (Means)	4,000	2,496	22.2	46.9
Jobseeker’s Allowance	5,488	3,312	23.6	43.0
Jobseeker’s Benefit	1,292	766	22.6	36.0
JA/JB Fraud Control	3	6	—	—
Respite Care Grant	162	114	30.5	49.1
Insurability of Employment	121	112	31.3	67.4
Supplementary Welfare All	989	343	6.9	14.8
Treatment Benefits	8	4	21.9	57.8
Survivor’s Pension (Con)	20	14	35.2	53.6
Survivor’s Pension (NonCon)	12	13	31.9	54.6
Widows Parent Grant	3	1	20.9	—

Staff of Social Welfare Appeals Office

Grade	2008	2009	2010	2011
Chief Appeals Officer	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Deputy Chief Appeals Officer	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.0
Office Manager	1.0	—	—	—*
Appeals Officers	16.4	18.4	19.6	19.6
Retired Appeals Officers (from July 2010)			3.0	3.0
Higher Executive Officers	2.8	2.8	2.8	2.8
Executive Officers	8.9	8.9	9.2	9.2
Staff Officers	5.0	5.0	5.0	5.0
Clerical Officers	18.4	18.4	22.6	22.6
Total	54.5	56.5	64.2	64.2

*From February 2009, the position of Office Manager has been subsumed into the duties of the Deputy Chief Appeals Officer.