The backlog of appeals to decisions on social welfare payments has come down by almost half, the Government will be told this week.
Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary will update the Cabinet on efforts to address the backlog.
There was a surge of appeals to the Social Welfare Appeals Office in recent years, with the Department of Social Protection blaming the increase on demographic changes which led to higher demand for pensions, disability and carers’ payments.
Mr Calleary has also said in the Dáil that the introduction of a simplified online appeals process has driven higher numbers, along with changes to regulations which increased the time limit following a decision during which an appeal can be made from 21 to 60 days – and up to 180 days in certain circumstances.
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Against this backdrop, it is expected that more than 40,000 appeals will be received by the office by the end of this year, contrasting with appeal volumes closer to 20,000 in recent years.
The department was forced to move more officials into the office in order to deal with the numbers, as well as introduce new procedures and a significant modernisation programme including a new IT system. Much of the appeals process is now run online, through the MyGovID system.
By the end of October this year, some 44,307 appeals had been finalised, up from 22,610 in the same period in 2024, the Cabinet will be told.
Meanwhile, the number of appeals awaiting decision stood at 21,000 at the beginning of the year. This has been reduced to just over 11,000 at the end of October, despite new appeals coming in at a rate of about 800 every week.
Mr Calleary has recently told the Dáil that processing times for appeals increase as his department clears the backlog. But he said that this too was coming down, from 23.5 weeks for 2024 to an average of 21.2 weeks at the end of the third quarter of this year. He told Fianna Fáil TD Pádraig O’Sullivan that he expects the times to fall back to between 10 and 12 weeks once the backlog is reduced further.
