Social welfare applicants waiting six months over appeals

Potential social welfare recipients must wait almost half a year on average to find out if they are eligible for certain payments following oral appeal, new figures show.

Statistics from the Department of Social Protection show that the median processing period for oral appeals on social welfare decisions is 25.7 weeks, compared to 18.2 weeks for decisions on written (summary) appeal submissions.

There is wide variation in the lengths of time taken to reach decisions on different types of payments, with waiting periods following the oral appeals process ranging from a minimum of 16 weeks to a maximum of almost 70 weeks.

Among the most common types of applications, those lodging an oral appeal following a decision on jobseeker’s allowance must wait for 21.5 weeks on average, as is the case with oral appeals for jobseeker’s benefit.

It typically takes just over 35 weeks to process oral appeals for child benefit applications, slightly under 25 weeks for the respite care grant and 21.6 weeks for disability allowance.

As is reflected in the overall averages, summary decisions are reached a number of weeks earlier across most individual categories compared to decisions arising from oral appeals.

The figures were procured as the result of a parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil TD Willie O'Dea, who said that the 3,102 applicants who were awarded disability allowance on appeal demonstrated that many eligible applicants are having to wait long periods of time before being granted access to a much-needed source of revenue.

“The waiting time can have significant financial repercussions for the applicant, putting many at risk of poverty while awaiting the outcome of a decision,” said the Limerick TD, who is also the Fianna Fáil’s spokesman for social protection.

“The Department of Social Protection is supposed to provide a safety net for people, but it is failing many people in that regard. The system needs to be reformed so that it can better respond to the needs of the people it is supposed to serve,” added Mr O’Dea.

He said Fianna Fáil is proposing to reform the application process for carer and disability payments, adding that the Social Welfare Appeals Office should be placed “on an independent statutory footing” from the Department of Social Protection.