The Department of Social Protection has said that there is now a backlog of 9,000 claims for Carer's Allowance, which will take up to 11 months to process.
The figures were released to Independent TD Denis Naughten, while figures released to Fianna Fáil also show that in some cases appeals are taking more than a year to process.
The news of delays came as the Free Legal Advice Centres group called for a root-and-branch reform of the social welfare appeals system.
The Department of Social Protection has described the backlog as “unacceptable” but says they are working to try to resolve it.
A department official said a new system for new claims has been introduced since September but it will be a number of months before the backlog is cleared.
Today the chief appeals officer, Geraldine Gleeson, said social welfare officers have been dealing with what she described as “a tsunami of claims”.
She said that the delays and backlogs of the last couple of years had attracted a lot of criticisms but she said that it was not at all clear that any other approach would have dealt with the issue any better than they did.
Earlier FLAC highlighted a list of concerns in its report, including lengthy delays in appeals decisions and a perceived lack of independence in the appeals office.
People can appeal if a social welfare application is refused and the appeals office had more than 51,000 appeals last year.
This was more than double the amount received in 2007.
The average processing time for these was 32 weeks. Around 40% were overturned and in one in five cases it was overturned by the original deciding officer.
The report says there is a lack of transparency in decision-making, as the appeals office does not publish its decisions.
While it acknowledges the increased workload of the appeals office, it says if more resources were put in at the original decision-making stage it would prevent unnecessary appeals.
It also says the appeals office should be placed on a statutorily independent footing to ensure independence from the Department of Social Protection.
