People denied social welfare face five month wait for appeal reassessment

PERSONS who are denied social welfare payments and appeal the decision must wait up to five months to have their cases reassessed.

Social Affairs Minister Seamus Brennan confirmed it took the Social Welfare Appeals Office 20 weeks to deal with the average case last year.

Fine Gael’s Denis Naughten said such delays caused severe financial hardship for the families involved and called on the minister to take steps to reduce the backlog.