Results 22,141-22,160 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Dietary Allowance Administration (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 275 and 294 together. Diet supplement, administered under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, is payable to qualifying persons, in receipt of the supplement prior to February 2014, who have been prescribed a special diet as a result of a specified medical condition. There are currently 3,200 in receipt of the diet supplement of diet supplement...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Administration (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: As the Deputy is aware, Community Employment (CE) is a labour market activation programme which helps long-term unemployed people (those 12 months or more in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment) and other disadvantaged groups to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine. It is designed to be a temporary fixed-term...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The legislation underpinning the definition of a child for the purposes of Child Benefit are contained in Sections 219 and 220 of the 2005 Social Welfare Consolidation Act. As a universal payment Child Benefit provides assistance to eligible families in recognition of the extra costs associated with raising children. Increases for a Qualified Child (IQCs) are paid as child-related...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Administration (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to their 18th birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a disability. Child Benefit is currently paid to 623,135 families in respect of some 1.2 million children, with an estimated expenditure...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement Data (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The following table sets out the number of recipients of family income support per county, on an annual basis in each of the years 2011 to 2016 and to date in 2017. County 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 to Date CARLOW 502 584 744 859 920 984 954 CAVAN 615 710 965 1,153 1,234 1,267 1,268 CLARE 736 763 1,028 1,181 1,280 1,313 1,288 CORK 3,016 3,372 4,683 5,354 6,039 6,110 6,025...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Services Programme (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Community Services Programme (CSP) provides financial support to community companies and social enterprises that deliver revenue generating services of a socially inclusive nature. The provision of local social, economic and environmental services is the core aim of the CSP. Pobal is contracted by my Department to undertake the financial and contract management for the CSP. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobPath Implementation (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The aim of the JobPath programme is to assist participants in finding sustainable full-time paid employment by providing intensive individual support and assistance. When selected for the JobPath activation programme in January this year, the person in question was in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance. It is a condition of the receipt of this payment that a recipient must be capable of,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my Department received an application for carer’s allowance from the person concerned on the 15 March 2017. The application was referred to a local social welfare inspector (SWI) on 29 May 2017 to assess the level of care being provided, assess means and confirm that all the conditions for receipt of carer’s allowance are satisfied. Once the SWI has reported, a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payment Applications (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The person concerned made an application for an Exceptional Needs Payment to assist with the cost of funeral expenses. Following an examination of the application, including all supporting documentation, the Designated Person has refused the application on the basis that the person concerned has a combined income, from both full time employment and a Widow’s Contributory Pension,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Social welfare legislation provides that the weekly value of property (including capital) belonging to the person (not being property personally used or enjoyed by the person or his or her spouse or a farm of land leased either by the person) which is invested or otherwise put to profitable use or is capable of being, but is not, invested or put to profitable use and the weekly value, is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The rate of state pension (contributory) pension entitlement payable to a person is directly related to contributions paid or credited over their working life.Similarly, pension entitlement payable from the UK authorities is based on the person’s UK social insurance record. The pension payments are not interchangeable. Where there is a shortfall in contributions for entitlement to an...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Budget Measures (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: My Department undertakes rigorous and extensive ex-ante and ex-post social impact assessments of the main welfare and direct tax budgetary policies. Social impact assessment (SIA) is an evidence-based methodology which estimates the likely distributive effects of policies on household incomes, families, poverty and access to employment. The analysis is generated through the ESRI’s...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pensions Insolvency Payments Scheme (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I understand that the persons referred to by the Deputy are part of a group of former workers who left the service of Waterford Crystal in the early 1990s and received their full pension entitlements in relation to pre-1991 service under the schemes at that point. The payments made at that time were in full and final settlement of their entitlements under the schemes and were paid in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Social welfare legislation provides that where a person under 25 years of age claims jobseeker’s allowance or supplementary welfare allowance and is living with a parent or step-parent in the family home, an assessment is made of the yearly value of any benefit and privilege enjoyed by that person by virtue of residing there. The value of the benefit and privilege assessed is based...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Community Employment (CE) is an active labour market programme with the emphasis on progression into employment and/or further education and training. The core eligibility criterion for CE is that the person is in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment for a year or more. Persons signing for credits or who are otherwise ineligible for a social welfare payment do not meet the current...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Paternity Leave Costs (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 293 and 306 together. The estimated additional cost of extending the duration of maternity benefit is approximately €10 million for each extra week. The table below estimates the additional cost of increasing the duration of maternity benefit above its current 26 week duration at the current weekly rate of €235. Estimated annual cost of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Live Register Data (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The exact information requested is not available for permanent child care workers in childcare facilities. However, my department has data on the broader category of “childc are and related occupations” which includes both those who work in childcare facilities – temporary or permanent - and other child care workers. The tables below show the number of people who were...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Personal Public Service Numbers (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The legislation governing the issue of a PPS number is the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended. Sections 262(2) and (2A) provide that: (2) The Minister may, subject to subsection (2A), allocate and issue a personal public service number to each person who is the subject of any transaction with a specified body. (2A) The Minister shall not allocate and issue a personal public...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Treatment Benefit Scheme (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: As outlined in the Programme for Government and announced in Budget 2017, I have extended eligibility to the treatment benefit scheme, to include the self-employed, who were not previously covered. From 27 March, self-employed contributors with sufficient PRSI contributions at class S, or class S combined with other previously reckonable classes of PRSI, are entitled to a range of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Bereavement Grant (30 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: In recent Budgets my Department has protected primary social welfare rates. Abolishing the bereavement grant provided a significant annual saving and allowed my Department to protect other core social welfare payments such as the State pension. The number of bereavement grant claims in 2013 was 23,716, and this represented an increase of approximately 4% on 2012. Based on a similar...