Results 27,281-27,300 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Wage Subsidy Scheme (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: An application for subsidy under the wage subsidy scheme from the employer of the person concerned was received by the Department on Monday 20thOctober 2014. The application is incomplete; further documentation and additional information is required and this is being sought. When the full information is provided a decision can be made on the application.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Applications (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: An application for domiciliary care allowance (DCA) was received from the person concerned on the 15th September 2014. This application has been forwarded to one of the Department’s Medical Assessors for their medical opinion. Upon receipt of this opinion, a decision will be made and notified to the person concerned. It can currently take 10 weeks to process an application for DCA.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to assist with reasonable accommodation costs of eligible people living in private rented accommodation who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources. The overall aim is to provide short-term assistance, and not to act as an alternative to the other social housing schemes...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Payments (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: In accordance with Social Welfare legislation the person with whom a qualified child normally resides is qualified to receive child benefit in respect of that child. The person concerned received child benefit for her daughter for a period when the child no longer resided with her. As a result, she was not entitled to payment for the period in question and a revised decision was made...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Illness Benefit Applications (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: To qualify for illness benefit the person concerned needs to satisfy certain statutory insurance contribution conditions, one of which requires that the person concerned has at least 39 PRSI contributions either paid or credited in the 2012 contribution year. This condition can also be satisfied if the person concerned has 26 contributions paid in 2012 and a further 26 paid in the previous...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: While I am very aware of the difficulties facing many pension schemes over the past number of years and of the efforts being made by the trustees of pension scheme to secure the sustainability of pension provision, you will appreciate that it is not appropriate for me to comment on issues arising in a particular pension scheme.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The average processing time for appeals peaked in 2011 when the average time for an oral hearing was 52.5 weeks and for a summary decision was 25.1 weeks. In 2012 the average processing time for an oral hearing dropped to 39.5 weeks and the time for a summary decision increased slightly to 27.8 weeks. Further improvements were achieved in 2013, when the average appeal processing time...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: Occupational Pension schemes are generally set up under trust and are maintained by the employer on a voluntary basis. The trust deeds and rules of a scheme differ from scheme to scheme, and as with any contractual situation, reflect the level of obligation of the parties involved. While the Pensions Act provides a framework for the regulation and supervision of occupational pension...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Applications (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: In order for qualify for fuel allowance the applicant must satisfy a household means test. In addition to the applicant’s social welfare payment, the applicant and other members of their household must have a combined income not exceeding €100.00 per week, or combined savings/investments not exceeding €58,000. According to the records of the Department, the means of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Applications (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department has not, to date, received an application for Rent Supplement from this client. The client should forward same to be assessed for entitlement to Rent Supplement to or to the Mid-Leinster Rent Unit, PO Box 11758, Dublin 24.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The person concerned is in receipt of a reduced rate State pension (contributory) based on an assessed yearly average of 19 contributions, covering the period July 1962 to December 2010. According to the records of the Department, the person concerned has no recorded contributions for the period 1967 to 1997. The person concerned has been requested on a number of occasions to provide...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Eligibility (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: As detailed to the Deputy in reply to Parliamentary Question No 135 of 17 September 2014, the client’s rent is well in excess of the maximum limit of €575 appropriate to his family composition and location. The Department is not aware of a rent reduction or alternative accommodation being sourced within the maximum applicable limit. Should this happen entitlement can be assessed.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Payments (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The client's Rent Supplement of €700 per month is in excess of the maximum limit of €500 applicable to their family composition and location. Following review, the client is requested to secure a rent reduction or source alternate accommodation within the maximum limits. The clients are being given the statutory allocation of 13 weeks to do so. Their Rent Supplement will...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement Eligibility (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 57 and 58 together. The family income supplement (FIS) is designed to provide support for employees with families, who have low earnings. It is a condition for receipt of FIS that the claimant must have at least one qualified child who normally resides with them. A qualified child is one under the age of 18 or one between the ages of 18 and 22 who is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Public Sector Staff Remuneration (23 Oct 2014)

Joan Burton: The agencies that operate under the aegis of the Department are the Pensions Authority and the Citizens Information Board. The Office of the Pensions Ombudsman also falls under the remit of the Department. There are no bonus payments made to any staff in the organisations concerned.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: The most recent Central Statistics Office, CSO, data shows that the long-term unemployment rate has fallen from 9.3% two years ago to 6.8% in the second quarter of this year, a very significant reduction. There were 146,500 persons long-term unemployed in the second quarter, down from the comparable figure of 200,000 two years earlier. A key aim of our Pathways to Work strategy is to ensure...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: Comments have been made on our benefits system by various international bodies. Several of them - I do not know whether the Deputy agrees with them - have indicated they would like to see reductions in the rate of payment to people on long-term unemployment benefits. I believe the way to go is not to reduce the weekly rates, as Fianna Fáil did when it was last in power by reducing the...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Unemployment Levels (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: I do not agree at all. A number of popular initiatives have been launched during the Government's period in office. For instance, Momentum is specifically targeted at the long-term unemployed. It means that when people take a course - most courses are up to an academic year in length - they will continue to receive their social welfare payments. At any one there are well over 20,000...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: The one parent family payment, OFP, scheme supports 71,095 recipients at an estimated cost of €865 million in 2014. The reforms to the scheme to reduce the maximum age limit of the youngest child for receipt of the payment to seven years of age from July 2015 and to reduce the scheme’s income disregard to €60 per week by January 2016 are provided for in the Social...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (4 Nov 2014)

Joan Burton: With regard to one-parent families, the critical thing is to provide a supportive framework for parents to get back to work in the way that happens in the North when the youngest child is well settled in school. That is why the age of seven years was selected. It is what applies in the North and in the UK. In Scandinavian countries, the age is lower. If the Deputy does not have a problem...