Huge delay in decisions on welfare appeals

Social welfare claimants whose applications for benefits have been turned down are facing “unacceptable delays” of several months in having the decision appealed, the Department of Social Protection has admitted.

The department said approximately 20,000 appeal cases are still to be dealt with.

Department officials also told the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Social Protection and Education yesterday they are uncovering cases of people working with one PPS number and claiming benefits with another PPS number.

In a recent spot check of a building site, 105 cases of fraudulent or incorrect benefit claiming — representing 13% of those interviewed — was uncovered, equating to a saving to the department of €900,000.

Chief Appeals Officer Geraldine Gleeson said the appeals workload had increased dramatically, more than doubling between 2009 and 2011 to 32,000.

“The rapid increase in workload has meant that our customers have experienced unacceptable delays,” she said.

Twelve additional appeals officers were assigned while officers who had retired were drafted back into work in the appeals section for 18 months in an effort to cut the backlog of cases.

“The time taken to build our capacity has meant a catch-up situation has developed, which has led to a deterioration in processing times as we clear through that backlog,” she said.

Processing times have now fallen and she told the Committee that by last month the average waiting time for a summary decision had dropped to just over 22 weeks and had fallen to 38 weeks for an oral hearing.

“At the best of times it’s not a quick process,” she said.

In addition to the lengthy appeals process, the rejection rate for claims for payments such as the Disability Allowance and Domiciliary Care Allowance can run at more than 50%.

Ms Gleeson said of the cases that were successful on appeal, half were overturned by the department and half by appeals officers, often following a medical review carried out by a different medical assessor than in the first instance.

“There is no real right or wrong, these are subjective decisions,” she said.

The department officials said more case studies would be printed on its website this year to explain how certain decisions on welfare applications were reached.

Regarding control measures, department assistant secretary Kathleen Stack said savings of €645m were being targeted this year.

“Would we like more officers? I suppose we probably would but in fairness I think we do a good job with the resources that we have,” said Ms Stack.