Disability allowance appeals surge as thousands of rejected applications later approved

New figures show disability allowance refusals have climbed to unprecedented levels, with thousands later approved after lengthy appeals

Aontú Leaer Peadar Tóibín TD at Leinster House. Picture: SAM BOAL/Collins Photos

Disability payment applications are being rejected at a "savage scale", with at least a quarter of rejected cases subsequently granted on appeal in the last 13 years.

Since 2015, some 144,649 applications have been rejected for payments, but 37,639 of those were overturned on appeal, figures released to Áontú's Peadar Tóibín show.

Mr Tóibín said the figures were "scandalous".

"What we see is that a large number of people are having their applications for disability allowance rejected by the Department of Social Protection each year. Last year, the number of rejected claims was over 20,000, higher than any previous year. 

"We can also see that between 3,000 and 5,000 people are successfully appealing the decision to refuse them the allowance each year. These figures indicate that for at least 25% of rejected applications, the Department is later admitting it was wrong to initially reject the application.

"Either the department is not doing its job correctly in how it processes and makes determinations on each application, or else the application process is too difficult and is leaving genuinely disabled people abandoned without financial assistance."

He called for an internal department audit into the rejected applications to determine how many of them were wrongfully rejected in light of the high rate of successful appeals.

The Department of Social Protection said that just because an appeal is successful, that does not always mean the original decision was incorrect.

It said social welfare schemes like disability allowance require an individual to submit "substantial evidence regarding their medical condition, the extent to which their condition restricts their employment opportunities, their means, and habitual residency".

The department added that unfavourable decisions are explained in writing, and it is "open to any person to request a review and or an appeal of any statutory decision". Any new evidence or information provided will then be considered as part of this review or appeal, it said.

"A decision can be revised because the person making an appeal provides additional information which was not made available when the decision was first made."