More than 11,000 people successfully appealed a decision to refuse or only part-grant them a social welfare payment last year.
The Social Welfare Appeals Office finalised almost 22,000 cases in 2023 where individuals were unhappy with how their welfare claim was handled.
The office said a total of 11,075 decisions were made in favour of the person appealing while the department's decision was upheld in 9,380 cases.
There were also 1,420 cases that were withdrawn before a final adjudication was made by social welfare appeals officers and 4,856 payments that were revised.
The largest number of cases related to disability where a total of 5,559 people were unhappy with a decision over their eligibility for the allowance, which currently has a maximum rate of €232 per week for an adult.
Of those, 46.5% of cases relating to 2,587 different individuals were successfully appealed while 41% of cases were lost.
There were also a smaller number of appeals that were withdrawn, partially allowed, or resulted in a revised decision, according to data provided by the Department of Social Protection.
Another contentious payment was the invalidity pension, which is paid at a rate of up to €237.50 per week for people who are incapable of work for a year and unlikely to be able to resume employment within the next year, or for those permanently unable to work.
A total of 837 people – or 46.1% of appeals – were successful in overturning the original decision while 623 individuals failed in their cases.
There was also a high number of invalidity cases, 314 in total, where a revised decision was made.
Around 900 people appealed in cases involving either the non-contributory or contributory state pension, with payment rates for the latter depending on how much a person has paid in PRSI during their working life.
However, pensioners were less likely to be successful than other social welfare applicants in having a decision overturned.
Of the 598 cases involving a contributory state pension, nearly two thirds – or 385 – were disallowed during the appeals process.
For the 309 people who appealed a decision involving a non-contributory pension, 148 of them were unsuccessful, or just under half the total.
There were around 2,200 cases involving the jobseeker’s allowance with only 9.5% of cases upheld and 48% of the total disallowed.
Other jobseeker appeals were withdrawn, partially upheld, or resulted in a revised decision, according to the figures released.
The Social Welfare Appeals Office was also contacted by 2,850 people who were unhappy over a decision involving the carer’s allowance.
Of those, around a quarter or just 680 cases were upheld, 1,506 were disallowed and 556 resulted in a revised decision.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Social Protection said the Social Welfare Appeals Office was independent in its decision making.
She said: "[Our] department’s deciding officers and designated persons make more than two million new [welfare] claim decisions in a year. In any year, about 85% of all claims are awarded by the department and around 1% of decisions are appealed."
"It is important that all evidence relevant to a claim is made available to the decision maker at the earliest opportunity."
"In many cases, decisions revised in favour of the appellant are on the basis of the person making an appeal providing additional information which was not made available when the decision was first made."
