Results 341-360 of 16,410 for are speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Flood Relief Schemes (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...in the immediate aftermath of emergency weather events under the Humanitarian Assistance Scheme. The purpose of the scheme is to provide income- tested financial support to people whose homes are damaged and because of lack of insurance are not able to meet costs for essential needs, household items and, in some instances, structural repair. The income test for the scheme is more...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Carer’s Allowance scheme is the main scheme by which the Department provides income support to carers in the community. In 2024 the expenditure on the Carer’s Allowance scheme is estimated to be over €1.1 billion. Means tests are an essential components of our social welfare system - they help to direct scarce reroutes to where they are needed most. In the absence...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Reports (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Officials in my Department have been compiling material related to all areas of the organisation to draft the Annual Report for 2023. This information is currently being collated. The content and design will be finalised in the coming weeks. It is intended that the 2023 Annual Report will be submitted to Government by the end of June 2024. The aim is to lay it before the Houses and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...committed to improving outcomes for people with a disability. In budget 2024 for example I provided for: A €400 once-off payment for Disability Allowance, Blind Pension, Invalidity Pension and Carer’s Support Grant recipients in November 2023 to address the high cost of living. A €200 lump sum Living Alone Allowance payment. A €300 lump sum Fuel Allowance...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Raidió Teilifís Éireann (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The function of Scope Section in my Department is to make decisions and provide information and advice on PRSI insurability in accordance with the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005. In conducting insurability investigations, the Department's fundamental objective is first, to ensure that workers do not suffer a loss of entitlement to social insurance benefits as a consequence of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. The average number of weeks to award a Disability Allowance claim is currently 12 weeks. My Department understands the many pressures faced by people and always seeks to ensure that claims...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...pension. The Supreme Court judgment overruled a previous High Court decision and found in favour of the claimant and his children. In simple terms, the Court found that section 124 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 (as amended) is inconsistent with the Constitution insofar as it excluded the claimant from the category of persons entitled to benefit from it. The Court reached...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...contribution, and assuming that 90% of enrollees will remain enrolled in the scheme, the full year cost of the State top-up is estimated to be €138 million in 2025. By Year 10, when the full contribution rates are phased in, the full annual cost is estimated to be €760 million. While the cost of incentivising AE appears to be significant, it represents an investment in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department is committed to supporting kinship carers in the valuable role they play in our society. A Guardians payment is made to a person caring for a child who satisfies the definition of an “orphan” under social welfare legislation. A child is considered an orphan if they are under 18 (or 22 if in full time education) and both parents are deceased; or one parent is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Social Protection provides income supports through a mixture of contributory payments (which are based on a person's social insurance record) and means-tested social assistance payments. To receive either a contributory or social assistance payment a person currently in receipt of an increase for a qualified adult under their partner's payment must qualify for that payment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Rights (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions. Anyone who has received a decision from my Department regarding a scheme they have applied for, which is appealable, or who had...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Poverty Data (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...Disability Allowance, Invalidity Pension and Blind Pension; €300 cost of living lump sum for those getting the Fuel Allowance, which was paid in November 2023; €200 cost of living lump sum to people who are getting a Living Alone Increase; Christmas Bonus double payment to all persons getting a long-term disability payment; From January 2024 there has been an increase of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 30, 31, 44 and 53 together. The main income supports to carers provided by my department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Spending on these payments is expected to amount to over €1.7 billion this year. The Carer’s Allowance scheme is the main scheme by which...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Parental Leave (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Parent’s Benefit is a payment for employed people, who are on Parent’s Leave from work, and self-employed people who satisfy certain PRSI contribution conditions. Currently, seven weeks Parent's Leave and Benefit is available to all eligible parents of children born or adopted from 1 November 2019. The leave and benefit must be availed of within two years of the child's birth...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Domiciliary Care Allowance is a monthly allowance payable in respect of a child aged under 16 who has a severe disability requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of the care and attention normally required by a child of the same age and, where the level of the child’s disability is such that the child is likely to require that level of care and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Bodies (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The main income supports to carers provided by my department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Spending on these payments is expected to amount to over €1.7 billion this year. As part of Budget 2024, I announced my intention to establish an Interdepartmental Working Group with the Department of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...has implemented a revised approach to supporting new arrivals from Ukraine from 14 March 2024. Under the revised approach, Beneficiaries of Temporary Protection who seek State accommodation are accommodated in Designated Accommodation Centres for a maximum of 90 days during which time they receive a reduced weekly payment of €38.80 per adult and €29.80 per child. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Disability Allowance is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, a means test and Habitual Residency conditions. Medical eligibility for Disability Allowance (DA) is assessed on a case by case basis and is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: ...pensions mentioned by the Deputy. The number of claims which were rejected for the contributory social insurance-based pension, the State Pension (Contributory), in each of the last five years are shown in the table below. These figures include claims which may have been rejected for reasons other than insufficient contributions, such as when an individual may have been financially better...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Government acknowledges the crucial role that carers play in Irish society and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. Carer's Allowance is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that, as a result, they require that...