Results 24,681-24,700 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The basic criteria that must be met by applicants wishing to participate in Community Employment (CE) schemes for one year are set out as follows: A person must be 25 years of age and over and currently in receipt of any combination of the following social welfare payments for 12 continuous months or more: - Jobseekers Benefit (JB);- Jobseekers Allowance (JA); - One Parent Family Payment...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who has decided to convene an oral hearing in this case. Every effort will be made to hear the case as quickly as possible and the appellant will be informed when arrangements for the oral hearing have been made. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Waiting Times (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department is committed to delivering the best possible service to its customers and works to ensure that claims and appeals are processed in the most efficient and expeditious way possible, having regard to the eligibility conditions that apply to each scheme. There are no backlogs in new applications for invalidity pension, carer’s allowance and disability allowance with all...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Data (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: There are currently approximately 78,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014. Following an extensive review of the private rental market revised maximum rent limits were introduced from Monday 17 June 2013 and will be in place until 31 December 2014. Despite the overall pressures on the social protection budget, there have been...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Payments (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department wishes to convey its sympathy to the family in question on their sad bereavement. The Department has reviewed this case and I can confirm that the person concerned was entitled to and was paid six weeks payment following the death of the person they were caring for which occurred on 25th December 2013. The person in question was entitled to payment from the 26th of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Appeals (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 15th November 2013. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought from the Department of Social Protection. These papers were received in the Social...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 25th February 2014. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought from the Department of Social Protection. These papers have been received in the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Education Allowance Eligibility (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) scheme is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to remove the barriers to participation in second and third level education by enabling eligible people on social welfare to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that leads to a higher qualification than that already held. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Support Services Issues (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Office of Public Works (OPW) has responsibility for the acquisition and maintenance of office accommodation for the Department of Social Protection. The Department works closely with OPW in relation to responsibilities under Section 25 of the Disability Act 2005, which requires that public buildings are compliant with Part M of the Building Regulations (2010). The OPW is very aware of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Data (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The number of places filled on Community Employment as at year-end 2008 was 22,896. The number of places filled on Community Employment as at year-end 2013 was 23,943. There was no reduction in CE places and, in fact, there was an increase of 1,047 places.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Appeals (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 10th December 2013. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. When these have been received from the Department, the case in question will be referred...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: I am informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that, an appeal was registered on 23rd January 2014, and in accordance with the statutory requirements, the Appeals Office has contacted the appellant and asked him to set out the complete grounds of his appeal. On receipt of his response the relevant departmental papers will be requested from the Department of Social Protection and the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an oral hearing of the appeal of the person concerned took place on 27th February 2014 and that the Appeals Officer is now considering the appeal in the light of all of the evidence submitted, including that adduced at the oral hearing. The person concerned will be notified of the Appeals Officer’s decision when the appeal has...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: Self-employed workers, including self-employed fishermen, whose businesses fail or suffer from reduced demand or who do not have constant or continuous employment, may access social welfare support by establishing entitlement to assistance-based payments such as jobseeker’s allowance and disability allowance. In the case of jobseeker’s allowance they can apply for the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Job Initiatives (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: JobPath is the Government’s new labour market activation service aimed specifically at the long-term unemployed and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed. JobPath will augment and complement the Department’s own employment service capacity as well as that of Local Employment Service (LES) and Job Clubs providers, who operate under contract to the Department,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Appeals (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: An application for domiciliary care allowance was received from the person concerned on 27th August 2013. The application was disallowed as the child was not considered to satisfy the qualifying conditions for the allowance. A letter issued on the 1st October 2013 advising of the decision. The person concerned has requested a review of this decision and supplied additional information on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Appeals (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that the current average time taken to decide domiciliary care allowance appeals decided by summary decision is 24.0 weeks and 28.4 weeks for those requiring an oral hearing. Appeal processing times are calculated from the registration date of the appeal to the date of its finalisation. They include all activities during this period...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The potential risk to An Post business into the future has been the subject of in-depth discussion over the past week. I think this is only right, given the importance of the network to the social fabric of our society. In this regard, I am very happy to provide my own support for the post office network and the valuable work being delivered by postmasters throughout the country. On the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Appeals (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on the 29th July 2013. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought from the Department of Social Protection. These papers were received in the Social...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (4 Mar 2014)

Joan Burton: The Deputy has not referred to any particular scheme in her question but I assume that she is referring to recent communication from Departmental officials to job-seeking clients aged 62 years and older. Up until Budget 2014, older jobseekers were required, as part of their entitlement to a Jobseeker’s payment, to comply with the Department’s activation measures when requested...