I am informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that, based on 2010 figures, the average time taken for a case which requires an oral hearing is 51.1 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 processing time for Disability Allowance dealt with by way of summary decision is 30.8 weeks 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.
I am assured by the Chief Appeals Officer that she is keeping the methods of operation by which the Social Welfare Appeals Office conducts its business under constant review, and that the processes are continuously being enhanced to reduce the backlogs in the Office and, overall, to reduce the processing times for dealing with appeals. In that regard, as a result of various initiatives, including the assignment of 9 additional Appeals Officers from April, taken over the past 12 months, 22,406 decisions were made by appeals officers in the first eleven months of 2011, in comparison to 16,232 for the same period in 2010.