Welfare appeals system ‘needs radical overhaul’

The Social Welfare appeals system, which can force people to battle for years for emergency payments, needs to be radically overhauled, it has been claimed.

Last year, the average time to process appeals by the Appeals Office was more than 32 weeks.

The department itself took an average of 12.9 weeks to pass requested information on to the Appeals Office, while the average processing time for an appeal which required an oral hearing was 52.5 weeks.