Results 27,181-27,200 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme Review (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for approximately 800,000 people, elderly, disabled and carers. Funding for the free travel scheme was capped by the previous Government in the National Recovery Plan 2011-2014. Given the increasing number of recipients and the funding pressures, the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport and I...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The homemaker’s scheme was introduced in 1994 to make qualification for SPC easier for those who take time out of the workforce for caring duties. The scheme allows up to 20 years spent caring for children under 12 years of age, or incapacitated people, to be disregarded when a person’s social insurance record is being calculated for pension purposes. The effect of this is to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud Data (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department’s policy is to ensure that every effort is made to prevent overpayments, but if they occur, they are regarded as a debt to the Exchequer and every effort must be made to recover the amounts due. It is the Department’s policy to investigate and pursue all overpayments so as to protect public monies to the greatest extent possible. The Department has a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 175 and 191 together. I refer the Deputy to the recent CSO Live Register Statistical Release giving data up to the end of August 2014 on the number of people availing of a range of programmes targeted primarily at the long-term unemployed (over 12 months) and other welfare recipients (including Lone Parents). There were 62,937 people availing of these...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Social welfare legislation provides that a person must satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking work in order to be entitled to jobseeker’s benefit or jobseeker’s allowance. Any person who fails to satisfy these conditions is not entitled to a jobseeker’s payment. A student undergoing a full-time course of study, instruction or training is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Applications (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The person concerned was notified on the 11th October 2014 that her domiciliary care allowance application was successful and that the allowance has been awarded from August 1st2014. Payment of the allowance, along with arrears due, will be available for collection in the nominated post office on the 21stOctober 2014 and on the third Tuesday of each month thereafter.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Applications (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The person concerned applied for domiciliary care allowance in respect of two children. The applications were not allowed as it was considered that the children did not meet the eligibility criteria for the allowance. A decision letter issued to the customer on the 9thOctober 2014 advising of the decision in each case. In the case of an application which is refused on medical grounds the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: According to the records of the Department, the person concerned commenced paying full-rate social insurance in 2001, as a self-employed contributor. The person concerned will reach pension age, 66, on 27 March 2015. A claim form for State pension (contributory) has been sent to him. On receipt of the completed claim form, his entitlement to pension will be fully examined and he will be...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Budget 2015 (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: I announced, on Budget Day, a number of welfare initiatives costing €198 million. These measures have four key objectives, as follows: - Assisting unemployed families to return to work by providing continued financial support; - Helping all families in the State with the cost of raising children; - Recognising the additional pressures on pensioners and people with disabilities who...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payments (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The Government has provided €31.3 million for the scheme in 2014. ENPs are payable at the discretion of the officers...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Waiting Times (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible and that backlogs of claims are kept to a minimum. Each scheme area is continuously monitored and reviewed to ensure customers are responded to as quickly as possible. In this regard, the Department has had major success in clearing backlogs, notably in the disability and caring schemes. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Labour Activation Measures (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The Government’s policy direction on labour market activation and stimulating employment growth is set out in Pathways to Work and the Action Plan for Jobs respectively. These policies are at the core of the Government’s strategies to get Ireland working again. The strategy outlined in Pathways is devised to ensure new job opportunities are made available to people on the live...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Job Initiatives (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Services and programmes for people who are on the Live Register and receiving welfare payments are available regardless of the registrant’s prior employee/self-employed status. The Government’s primary strategy to reduce unemployment, including for those who were previously self-employed, is through policies to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The operational requirements to deliver the 25% Christmas Bonus, as announced on Budget Day, will shortly be finalised by the Department and a comprehensive list of all the schemes, including activation schemes, which will benefit will then be published.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Payments (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 195 and 196 together. The recent Budget provided for an increase in child benefit of €5 per month per child with effect from January next and this increase brings the monthly rate to €135. The rate payable in respect of each twin will continue to be one and a half times the normal monthly rate while families with multiple births will also...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department will spend €230 million this year on the household benefits package for almost 415,000 customers. The fuel allowance, worth €520 per year, is paid for 26 weeks from October to April to almost 415,000 households at an estimated cost of €208 million in 2014. The Government has already announced that from 2015 both the household benefits package and the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The principal demographic impact on the projected expenditure of the Department of Social Protection in the years ahead relates to the ongoing increase in the number of older people. It is estimated, in this regard, that the annual increase in expenditure on the main pension schemes operated by the Department will be in the order of €200 million in both 2015 and 2016 arising from...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Staff Redeployment (21 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: In accordance with formal protocols agreed between the Civil, Public and Services Union (CPSU) and the Department of Finance, the names of Clerical Officers and Staff Officers from across the civil service applying for a transfer to a particular location are recorded on the relevant transfer list. Informal transfer lists are also maintained in respect of other grades. The transfer lists...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Applications (22 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The person concerned applied for domiciliary care allowance in respect of three children in September 2014. These applications have been forwarded to one of the Department’s Medical Assessors for their medical opinion. Following receipt of these opinions, a decision will be made in respect of each application by a Deciding Officer and notified to the person concerned. It can...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Payments (22 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Child benefit is a universal payment that assists parents with the cost of raising children and contributes towards alleviating child poverty. The estimated expenditure on child benefit in 2014 is around €1.9 billion and it is currently paid to around 613,000 families in respect of some 1.17 million children. Child benefit is paid up to and including the month of the child’s...