Social Protection | Overturning on appeal of decisions in respect of social welfare payments

To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which various decisions in respect of social welfare payments have been subsequently overturned on appeal by the applicants or her Department in the past twelve months; and if she will make a statement on the matter.

REPLY

The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements.

The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that there are a number of reasons why a decision which was refused at first instance might be successful on appeal and it is not necessarily the case that the first decision was incorrect.  It is often the case that new evidence is provided with an appeal and that, as a result, the original decision may be revised by the Deciding Officer or Designated Person.  Where the decision is not revised by the Department in light of the appeal contentions, further evidence is often provided by the person concerned over the course of the appeal process and this may lead to the appeal being allowed or partly allowed by the Appeals Officer.

The table below provides details of the outcomes of all finalised appeals in 2022.

Appeal Outcomes 2022
Scheme	Allowed by Appeals Officer	Part allowed by Appeals Officer	Revised Decision by Deciding Officer	Disallowed by Appeals Officer	Total
Back To Work Family Dividend	1	1	14	25	41
Blind Pension	1	0	4	8	13
Carer’s Allowance	804	67	520	1,953	3,344
Carer’s Benefit	76	1	78	113	268
Carer’s Support Grant	89	4	40	191	324
Child Benefit	31	7	118	150	306
Death Benefit	0	0	0	1	1
Deserted Wife’s Benefit	3	1	0	3	7
Disability Allowance	2,348	74	722	2,222	5,366
Disablement Benefit	51	7	21	122	201
Domiciliary Care Allowance	698	48	712	535	1,993
Farm Assist	10	8	22	32	72
Guardian’s Payment (Contributory)	12	3	5	24	44
Guardian’s Payment (Non-Contributory)	5	3	7	5	20
Illness Benefit	37	2	1,129	238	1,406
Incapacity Supplement	1	0	0	0	1
Injury Benefit	12	0	14	35	61
Insurability of Employment	60	1	11	46	118
Invalidity Pension	570	7	387	590	1,554
Jobseeker’s Allowance	170	56	520	822	1,568
Jobseeker’s Allowance (Means)	43	16	167	377	603
Jobseeker’s Benefit	88	23	389	388	888
Jobseeker’s Benefit Over 65	7	2	24	145	178
Jobseeker’s Benefit Self Employed	5	0	18	30	53
Jobseeker’s Transitional	9	3	31	41	84
Liable Relatives	1	0	32	0	33
Maternity Benefit	15	1	32	50	98
One Parent Family Payment	24	8	114	105	251
Pandemic Unemployment Payment	54	9	305	504	872
Parent’s Benefit	3	2	18	13	36
Partial Capacity Benefit	35	4	5	50	94
Paternity Benefit	3	0	22	17	42
State Pension (Contributory)	32	11	122	327	492
State Pension (Non-Contributory)	34	24	70	159	287
Supplementary Welfare Allowance	111	20	144	571	846
Treatment Benefits	1	0	101	12	114
Widowed Parent Grant	2	0	1	5	8
Widows,Widowers Pension (Contributory)	6	1	11	45	63
Widows,Widowers Pension (Non-Contributory)	0	1	3	12	16
Working Family Payment	54	5	795	236	1,090
Totals	5,506	420	6,728	10,202	22,856

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.