More than half of appeals against decisions made by a Government department in relation to eligibility for invalidity pension were successful last year, figures published today show.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Martin Cullen published the report of the Social Welfare Appeals Office, which shows that 14,070 appeals were registered out of payments made to a possible one million weekly social welfare customers in some 50 different payment schemes.
Some 281 appeals in relation to invalidity pension were successful out of 506 received by the appeals office last year. A total of 8,116 applications for such a pension were received.
Just 12.8 per cent of appeals in relation to the one-parent family payment were successful – 111 out of some 866 sent to the office. A total of 17,876 applications were made for the one-parent family payment in 2007, the report shows.
In relation to occupational injuries, the Department received some 18,931 applications for such payments, which include injury benefit, disablement pension and death benefits. A total of 184 (40 per cent) out of the 456 appeals made in relation to such payments were successful.
On illness benefit, 18.5 per cent of appeals succeeded – 475 out of the 2,556 received. Some 305,912 applications for this benefit were received by the department.
A total of 19.4 per cent of claimants who appealed decisions on disability allowance were successful. Some 536 appeals were allowed out of 2,754. A total of 19,989 applications were received for disability allowance.
“The decision staff in the Department are committed to meeting the needs of a diverse customer base and while every effort is made by the Department to deliver entitlements to people it is understandable that not everyone will agree with the decisions made on their claims,” Mr Cullen said.
“Access to an independent review mechanism for those who are dissatisfied with a decision given on their social welfare entitlements is a fundamental feature of our social security system and is vital.”