Results 6,441-6,460 of 28,255 for speaker:Éamon Ó Cuív

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Department currently maintains four websites; three external and one internal as follows: www.welfare.ie www.groireland.ie www.nationalpensionsframework.ie SOLAS The development and ongoing maintenance of these websites is subject to the Department's project governance provisions ensuring value for money and high quality, including adherence to security, data protection and...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 437, 447 and 451 together. Child income support payments to all families with children have risen in the period since 1997. Spending on Child Benefit increased from €506 million in 1997 to almost €2.5 billion in 2009 while spending on the Family Income Supplement increased from €33 million to €167 million over the same time period. The Government is...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: 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. Changes have been...

Written Answers — Employment Support Measures: Employment Support Measures (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The Department of Social Protection operates a range of employment support measures designed to encourage and support social welfare recipients of working age to reduce their dependency on welfare payments. This is done through the operation of a number of schemes such as the Back to Education scheme, Back to Work Enterprise allowance scheme, the Short-Term Enterprise allowance scheme, the...

Written Answers — Employment Support Measures: Employment Support Measures (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The back to work allowance schemes are designed to assist the long-term unemployed, lone parents, people with disabilities and other social welfare recipients to return to work. One of the goals of the social welfare system is to be responsive to the needs of people of working age and to facilitate them taking up relevant employment opportunities. In order to respond effectively to the...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 442, 443 and 452 together. Social welfare expenditure for 2011, including expenditure on State pensions, will be considered in the context of the forthcoming Budget, having regard both to needs and to the resources available to meet those needs. In an uncertain economic environment, my priority will be to ensure that the Government strategy to stabilise the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme (BSCFA) operates from the beginning of June to the end of September each year and is administered on behalf of my Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Applications for the allowance may be made between the beginning of June and the end of September each year. While the closing date for...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: At 15th October 2010, there were 8,406 jobseeker's allowance customers who made their claim after 1st January 2010 and who are categorised as having been self-employed prior to making their claim. Of those, 4,729 are awarded, 520 are currently disallowed and 3,157 are pending a decision. Any changes to the qualifying criteria for jobseeker's allowance will be considered within a budgetary...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The data requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table. Carer's Allowance claims received, awarded, refused, appealed 2007 - 2010 2007 2008 2009 2010 (30 Sept) No. of claims received 18,097 18,928 16,574 13,894 No. of claims awarded 9,109 15,457 10,730 6,354 No. of claims refused 3,537 5,015 5,776 5,187 No. of appeals received 668 1,017 1,864 2,389 I have no plans to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I am informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that there are 6,842 Jobseeker's Allowance and Jobseeker's Benefit appeals on hand. A number of initiatives have been put in place to enhance the capacity of the office to deal with the current caseload and inflows. In that regard: · 2 additional Appeals Officers were assigned to the Office in 2009, · A number of additional staff were...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 449 and 454 together. Since May 2008, 766 staff have been assigned to my Department, mainly through the transfer and redeployment of staff from other Government Departments. The urgent need for resources was due to a number of factors including the significant increase in the Live Register, an increase in claims for other schemes operated by the Department,...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I understand from the Deputy that his question refers to reserves of the Social Insurance Fund. The Social Insurance Fund finances expenditure on insurance based welfare benefits. It held cash equivalent reserves of €890 million at the beginning of 2010. The amount by which income exceeded expenditure has fallen consistently since 2006 and the Fund has run an annual deficit since 2008,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: According to the records of the Department the person concerned has paid PRSI contributions since he entered insurable employment in this State in 2001. He should call to his local social welfare office for advice on the entitlements that are available to him.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The position remains as advised to the Deputy in question number 181 of 14 October 2010. The Health Service Executive (HSE) refused rent supplement in this case on the grounds that the rent payable to the landlord was in excess of the prescribed maximum limits with regard to the personal circumstances of the person concerned. If the person concerned wishes to make a new application for rent...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: In the time frame available, I regret that my Department is not in a position to reply to this question. My Department will be in contact with the Deputy over the coming days and will reply in full to the question raised.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: I propose to take Questions Nos. 458 and 460 together. The average processing times for illness benefit (IB) and occupational injury benefit (OIB) claims are as follows: IB OIB 2006 5 days 5 days 2007 6 days 5 days 2008 8 days 6 days 2009 7 days 6...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The information requested by the Deputy is set out in the following table. Average processing times in weeks for new disability allowance claims from 2006 to 2010 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 No. of weeks 14 16 15 15 13 The Department is committed to delivering the best possible service to its customers. Operational...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: Since the 1st April 2009 this Department has responsibility for the administration of the domiciliary care allowance (DCA) scheme. Prior to this date the scheme was the responsibility of the HSE. Statistics relating to the period prior to April 2009 are not held by this Department. In 2009 the average time taken to process a DCA application in the Department was 7 weeks, the average...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The average processing time for family income supplement in each of the years 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and currently in 2010 are as follows: Year Average weeks to award 2010* 9 weeks 2009 8 weeks 2008 13 weeks 2007 12 weeks 2006 8 weeks *current figure for 2010.

Written Answers — Departmental Agencies: Departmental Agencies (27 Oct 2010)

Éamon Ó Cuív: The three statutory bodies operating under the aegis of the Department are the Pensions Board, the Citizens Information Board and the Social Welfare Tribunal. In addition the Pensions Ombudsman comes under the remit of the Department. The information requested in respect of these bodies is set out in the following table. Name of Agency No. of Board Members The Pensions Board 17 Citizens...