Parents wait a year for child benefit appeals to be processed

PARENTS whose initial application for children’s allowance was refused are waiting almost a year for their appeal to be processed.

The unacceptable waiting time for child benefit, worth about €150 per month per child, was revealed in a response to a query from Labour TD Seán Sherlock to Social Protection Minister Éamon Ó Cuív.

Figures from the Department of Social Protection reveal since the start of the year, the vast majority of appeals have been rejected — 680 appeals have been processed, of which just 127 have been allowed — less than 20% of the total.

A spokesperson for the department said the issue in 464 of these appeals “related to the habitual residence condition”, while 36 related to backdating of an award.

In the remaining 180 cases, the issues involved included determining the qualifying parent. For a monthly payment to be made, each qualified child must normally be living with the parent who is applying for the benefit and be supported by him/her.

Yesterday, Mr Sherlock, Labour TD for Cork East, said the appeals process needed to be streamlined to speed up the time it takes for a decision to be made.

“It should be dealt with in a timely fashion. It is unfair to expect parents to wait a year for what can be a very important support,” Mr Sherlock said.

He also criticised the lack of transparency on the nationalities of those whose appeals were rejected.

“We need a greater degree of clarity as to the breakdown of nationalities involved. We need to know if Irish people who worked abroad for a number of years and who have now returned to set up home in the land of their birth feature among those who are having appeals disallowed,” he said.

To qualify for child benefit, applicants must satisfy habitual residence conditions (HRC) which include being able to prove a close link to Ireland.

Figures from social care agency Crosscare show applications from Irish nationals for social welfare across all benefits almost doubled in 2008 and 2009, compared with the previous three years based on HRC. The figure in 2008 was 985 compared to 501 in 2005.

Some 1,251 child benefit appeals are being processed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office. The department said a “considerable period of time” is added to the process when an oral hearing is required.

During 2009, 59% of appeal cases were dealt with by oral hearing, reduced to 31% in 2010 to date.

The department also said that since January 2009, three additional appeals officers have been assigned to the office, as well as four additional staff to the administration area.

“In addition, it was decided to use experienced retired appeals officers strictly on a short term basis to supplement the current resources and eight of these officers have been operating on a part-time basis since July,” the department said.

To receive child benefit the child must be aged 16 or under, or up to 18 if they are in full-time education, attending a Fás Youthreach course or have a physical or mental disability and are dependent on the parent.