Results 26,321-26,340 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme supports 74,426 recipients at an estimated cost of €863 million in 2014.The reforms to the OFP scheme are reducing on a phased basis, the maximum age limit of the youngest child at which an OFP recipient’s payment ceases to 7 years from 3 July 2014 for new entrants and from 2015 for existing recipients. There are no plans to cancel or...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Youth Unemployment Measures (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The cost of employment, training and education programmes for unemployed young people are funded, in the first instance, by the Irish Exchequer. However, it is expected that a number of the programmes included in Ireland’s Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan will meet European Social Fund eligibility criteria and will be included in the Youth Employment Initiative application for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation. There are approximately 76,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided over €344 million for 2014. Prospective tenants, including those seeking to access rent supplement, particularly in urban areas, are finding it increasingly...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme supports 74,426 recipients at an estimated cost of €863 million in 2014.The reforms to the OFP scheme are reducing on a phased basis, the maximum age limit of the youngest child at which an OFP recipient’s payment ceases to 7 years from 2014 for new entrants and from 2015 for existing recipients. On 3 July, 2014, 5,140 customers saw...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Education Allowance Eligibility (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The back to education (BTEA) programme is a second-chance education scheme for jobseekers, lone parents and people with disabilities who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments. Under the BTEA, income support is provided to allow jobseekers undertake a second-level or third-level course to improve their education and skills. In mid-May, I announced a number of enhancements to the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: As the Deputy is aware, the Social Welfare and Pensions (No.2) Act amended the Pensions Act to change the manner in which the assets of a pension scheme are distributed in the event of the wind up of a scheme. It also broadened the options available to the trustees of a pension scheme when considering a restructure of scheme benefits under section 50 of the Pensions Act. These changes...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Review (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The free travel scheme is currently available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over, to carers and to customers under 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type payments. There are currently over 790,000 customers in receipt of free travel at an annual cost of €77 million. The freeze on funding for the scheme introduced by the previous government in 2010 as...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The jobseeker’s benefit and jobseeker’s allowance schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative employment. The revised estimates for the Department of Social Protection provide for expenditure of €3.3bn in 2014 in respect of the jobseeker’s schemes. Reduced rates for younger jobseeker’s allowance...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: Self-employed persons are liable for PRSI at the class S rate of 4% which entitles them to access long-term benefits such as State pension (contributory) and widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's pension (contributory). Ordinary employees who have access to the full range of social insurance benefits pay class A PRSI at the rate of 4%. In addition, their employers make a PRSI...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Internship Scheme Administration (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: I am satisfied that JobBridge is not exacerbating under-employment. As independent research has shown it significantly improves the chances of unemployed jobseekers moving into employment. In addition JobBridge is not free labour as suggested by the question – it is an internship scheme which provides unemployed jobseekers with valuable workplace experience and training. In this...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Youth Guarantee (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan was published in January. It provides for over 28,000 programme opportunities for unemployed young people in 2014, as set out in the table attached as an appendix to this statement. This figure excludes some 24,000 places provided for young people through PLC courses and apprenticeships. These PLC and apprenticeship places, together with the wide...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobPath Initiative (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department is currently in the process of finalising the evaluation of tenders for the provision of employment services under the JobPath initiative. This is a confidential process and is being conducted in accordance with EU and national public procurement rules. No information in relation to the tenders will be released during the process.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Drug Rehabilitation Projects (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection acts as a channel of funding (CoF) for a range of Drugs Task Force projects, as approved by the Drugs Programme Unit of the Department of Health. Under the conditions of the CoF function, it is a requirement of the Department of Health that the payments are made in line with this Department’s financial governance procedures. This includes funding,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department has published a social impact assessment of the main welfare and tax measures in Budget 2014, including the discontinuing of the telephone allowance. The analysis shows that the combined welfare and tax measures for 2014 result in a loss of 0.8 per cent in average household income. The largest percentage loss is for the top and bottom quintiles at 1.1 per cent, with lower...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Review (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The free travel scheme is currently available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over, to carers and to customers under 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type payments. There are currently over 790,000 customers in receipt of free travel at an annual cost of €77 million. The freeze on funding for the scheme introduced by the previous government in 2010 as...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Internship Scheme Data (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: 41 host organisations have been excluded from participation in JobBridge. The Department does not disclose the names of those host organisations. Host organisations have been excluded for a number of reasons, including administrative or technical reasons such as the company having been dissolved before the end of the internship, failure to respond to e-mails, the use of a third party to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme supports 76,249 recipients at an estimated cost of €863 million in 2014.The reforms to the OFP scheme are reducing on a phased basis, the maximum age limit of the youngest child at which an OFP recipient’s payment ceases to 7 years. The rationale for these reforms is to provide lone parents with improved access to a wide range of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Drug Treatment Programmes Policy (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: A Working Group, chaired by the Department of Social Protection, was set up in May to develop a framework for the delivery of the drugs rehabilitation response within CE. This group includes stakeholders from drugs rehabilitation projects and representatives from the statutory, community and voluntary sector, including Drugs Task Forces. Work on the social inclusion strand for the CE drug...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Insurance (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: Social insurance spending has traditionally been funded on a tripartite basis – with contributions coming from the Exchequer, employers and employees. Legally, the Exchequer is the residual financier of the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) and Exchequer contributions were the norm for over 40 years. For example, in 1967, the State contribution was 38% of SIF expenditure; and almost 29% in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement Payments (15 Jul 2014)

Joan Burton: The Revised Estimates Volume for 2014 provides for expenditure of €19.6 billion by the Department of Social Protection on schemes, services and administration. The vast majority of this expenditure goes on weekly income support payments as well as monthly child benefit payments. The Department currently provides income support to over 1.4 million recipients each week. When...