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Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The State Pension (Contributory) is funded by the contributions paid into the Social Insurance Fund in contrast to a Public Service Pensions where the terms and conditions including pension entitlement are part of the employment contract. More broadly, matters relating to the pension entitlements of public servants, and the rates of these pensions and any increases, are a matter for the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Transport (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Part time school bus drivers who are not paid outside of school term time and who apply for a social welfare payment are included as Educational Sector Workers (ESWs). ESWs who wish to avail of income support while temporarily laid-off during the school breaks can apply for a jobseeker’s payment. A jobseeker’s payment is paid for days of unemployment that the person is not...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department provides support to people with disabilities in the form of the Free Travel Scheme. The objective of the Free Travel Scheme is to ensure older people and people with disabilities remain active within their community by providing access to existing public and private transport routes. The Free Travel Scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks. That is a total of €924 each year, available from late September to April, at an estimated cost of €400 million in 2025. The criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to my Department in as targeted a manner as possible. To qualify for the Fuel Allowance...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Postal Services (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Department is unaware of any current delays in postal deliveries. Deciding Officers operate independently in their decision-making and are required to apply the provisions of social welfare legislation. Persons requested to provide information within statutory timelines or time periods must do so. A person may be required to furnish information for the purposes of determining a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Homemakers Disregard Scheme was introduced in April 1994 for use in the Yearly Average calculation of the State Pension (Contributory). This allowed an applicant to apply under the Homemaker's Scheme for those years out of the workforce since April 1994 spent caring for children under age 12 or other dependent relatives to be disregarded in the calculation under the Yearly Average...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 621 to 624, inclusive, together. Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age. Child Benefit can also be claimed for children aged between 16 and 18, if they are in full-time education or full-time training or have a disability and cannot support themselves. As of 30/06/2025, Child Benefit was in payment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Communications (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: My Department has a broad ranging and comprehensive control strategy, the Compliance and Anti-Fraud Strategy, which aims to ensure that suspected fraud and non-compliance in our welfare system is kept to a minimum. A range of checks are pursued to prevent, detect, and deter abuse within the welfare system including checks before claims are awarded and subsequent reviews where claims are in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) provides immediate assistance for those in need. SWA payments are means tested and as part of the application process, a person must provide personal, financial, household, and other information in support of their claim to determine eligibility and to establish a need as considered necessary. The person concerned was in receipt of a weekly...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is a service 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. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The person concerned reached pension age on 7 December 2024. An application for State pension (contributory) was received on 1 November 2024. To be eligible for the State pension (contributory), an individual must have at least 520 paid contributions. The records of my Department show the person concerned has 434 paid contributions which falls short of the minimum requirement. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Communications (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I signed a reply to this representation on 9th July 2025 and a hard copy was hand delivered to Leinster House the following day.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Free Travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. There are over one million customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on the Free Travel scheme in 2025 is €107.6 million. The Programme for Government 2025 has committed to examining extending the Free Travel scheme to include...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: I propose to take Questions Nos. 631 and 632 together. As of the week of 6th July 2025, of the 85,240 recipients of full-time unemployed Jobseeker's Allowance on the Live Register. Of these, 13,309 have been in receipt of jobseeker's Allowance for 5 years or more. Claims may not have been in payment continuously for the entire period.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The number of people in receipt of Carer's Allowance at the end of each year from 2020 - 2024, and at the end of June 2025, is set out in the table below. 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 June 2025 88,906 90,889 92,175 95,787 97,985 100,798

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Fuel Allowance is a payment to help with the cost of heating a home during the winter months. A person can get Fuel Allowance if are they are aged 66 years or over, or getting long-term social welfare payments. The number of recipients of Fuel Allowance in December for each year from 2020-2024, and for March 2025, are shown in the table below. YEAR RECIPIENTS ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The tables below outline the estimated annual cost of increasing social welfare schemes by €1. It should be noted that these costings are subject to change in the context of emerging trends and the associated revision of the estimated numbers of recipients. It should also be noted that these costings include proportionate increases for qualified adults and for those on reduced...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The tables below outline the estimated annual cost of increasing the weekly rate of Jobseeker's payments by €1, €10 and €12. For the purposes of answering this parliament question, "Jobseekers' payments" is assumed to include not only the direct Jobseeker's payment schemes which have a weekly maximum personal rate (i.e. Jobseeker's Benefit, Jobseeker's Allowance and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit (JPRB) is a payment you can get if you become fully unemployed and have paid enough pay-related social insurance (PRSI) contributions. You cannot work and get Jobseeker’s Pay-Related Benefit at the same time. The amount you get is directly linked to your earnings from work before you became unemployed. As of the week ending 6th July 2025, a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (15 Jul 2025)

Dara Calleary: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is a service 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. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence,...

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