Results 3,961-3,980 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pensions Reform (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Pensions reform is a Government priority and I can confirm an intention to publish and commence the implementation of a pensions reform plan in the coming weeks. This reform plan will detail measures to reform both our State and supplementary pension systems. Perhaps the two most fundamental reform measures contained within this plan will relate to the introduction of the ‘Total...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment Appeals (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an oral hearing of the appeal of the person concerned took place on 3rdJanuary 2018. At the oral hearing it was agreed that the person concerned would send in further documentation in support of their appeal. This documentation has been received and the Appeals Officer is now considering the appeal in the light of all of the evidence...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: The person concerned has previously had their entitlement to state pension (contributory) examined. According to the records of my Department, the person concerned has a social insurance record of 1,133 reckonable paid and credited contributions, from 1965 to 2014 giving them a yearly average of 28. In arriving at this yearly average, disregards for homemaking periods were applied. This...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Appeals (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that two appeals by the person concerned were registered in that office on 23rdNovember and 5thDecember 2017 respectively. 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 papers have been received from the Department,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Occupational Injuries Benefit Applications (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Injury Benefit is a weekly payment in respect of incapacity for work due to an accident arising out of and in the course of employment. For the purpose of the scheme, an accident while on an unbroken journey between one’s normal place of residence and one’s place of employment, is regarded as an accident at work. Benefit can be paid for up to 26 weeks from the date of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions Payments (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: An agency arrangement has been in place, at the request of the person concerned, since 5 December 2008. Details of any concerns arising from the pension payment arrangements of the person concerned should be submitted in writing directly to State pension (contributory), Department of Employment Affair and Social Protection, College Road, Sligo F91 T384. I hope this clarifies the matter for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: The free television licence is received as part of the household benefits package (HHB) which also comprises the electricity or gas allowance. The package is generally available to people living in the State, aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The package is also available to carers and people with disabilities under the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Properties (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: There are no vacant residential dwelling units under the remit of my Department or that of the statutory bodies operating under the aegis of my Department.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Film Industry (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Bogus self-employment arises where an employer wrongly treats a worker as an independent contractor in order to avoid tax and social insurance contributions. There are robust arrangements in place for dealing with complaints of bogus self-employment. Social welfare inspectors inspect a wide range of businesses, as part of their on-going compliance operations. Inspections are also undertaken...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance Payments (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: 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) as well as guardians payment (contributory), maternity benefit, paternity benefit and adoptive benefit. Ordinary employees who have access to the full range of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Data (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Further to parliamentary question numbers 310 and 311 of 7 March 2017 the number of Community Employment (CE) projects for 2017 is provided by county, in tabular form in table 1. In addition, the total number of participants and supervisors for 2017 is provided in table 2. The details for 2018 is currently being compiled and will be forwarded directly to the Deputy, together with the number...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Overpayments (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Overpayments of social welfare assistance and benefit payments arise as a consequence of decisions made under the relevant sections of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 2005. As part of the process of finalising a decision and assessing an overpayment, the deciding officer or designated person (in the case of the administration of payments under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Article 70(3)(a) of Statutory Instrument No. 312 of 1996 (Social Welfare (Consolidated Contributions and Insurability) Regulations 1996 allows the award of employment contributions to a person which have not been paid, in circumstances where this has not occurred with their consent or connivance, or due to their negligence. The Department will carry out a review of the record of any customer...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Youth Unemployment Measures (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Government policy to reduce unemployment is twofold. First, through policies set out in the Action Plan for Jobs, to create an environment in which business can succeed and create jobs; and second, through Pathways to Work, to ensure that as many as possible of these new jobs and other vacancies that arise in our economy are filled by people taken from the Live Register, including young...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Waiting Times (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: The prompt processing of applications remains a priority for my Department. Each scheme area is continuously monitored and reviewed to ensure customers are responded to as quickly as possible, and their applications are processed as expeditiously as possible. All applications are registered promptly. In some schemes, this is done through the scanning of claim documents onto the system...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payments (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 573 and 576 together. Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The Department may make an urgent needs payment (UNP) to a person who may not...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pensions Data (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 574 and 575 together. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. I am advised by the Chief Appeals Officer that there were 269 state pension (contributory)...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: For certain social insurance schemes, namely illness benefit, jobseeker’s benefit and health and safety benefit, graduated rates apply where the average weekly earnings are less than €300 per week. The rate of payment depends on the person’s level of earnings in the governing PRSI contribution year. For illness benefit claims made in 2018, the governing contribution...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Data (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. The tables below provide the details which have been requested by the Deputy in respect of 2016 and 2017. The schemes with the highest number of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (20 Feb 2018)

Regina Doherty: Self-employed workers who earn €5,000 or more in a contribution year, are liable for PRSI at the class S rate of 4%, subject to a minimum annual payment of €500. This provides them with access to the following benefits: State pension (contributory), widow’s, widower’s or surviving civil partner’s pension (contributory), guardian’s payment...