Results 6,761-6,780 of 10,035 for speaker:Martin Cullen

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Social Welfare Consolidation Act, 2005, requires that an actuarial review of the financial condition of the social insurance fund will be undertaken at five-year intervals. The first actuarial review was published in October, 2002 and reflected the position of the Social Insurance Fund at the end of 2000. The second actuarial review will update that report to address the position of the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Government discussion paper, Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents, puts forward proposals for the expanded availability and range of education and training opportunities for lone parents; the extension of the National Employment Action Plan to focus on lone parents; focused provision of childcare; improved information services for lone parents and the introduction of a new social...

Written Answers — National Carers Strategy: National Carers Strategy (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 412 and 426 together. Supporting and recognising carers in our society has been a priority of the Government since 1997 and will continue as such during the coming term. Since 1997, weekly payment rates to carers have been greatly increased, qualifying conditions for carer's allowance have been significantly eased, coverage of the scheme has been extended and...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Government is committed to producing a Green Paper on pensions in accordance with the partnership agreement Towards 2016. My Department, in cooperation with the Departments of the Taoiseach, Finance and Enterprise, Trade and Employment, and the Pensions Board has been working over a number of months on the preparation of the Green Paper and I hope to have it discussed by Government as...

Written Answers — Proposed Legislation: Proposed Legislation (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) last year, provided services to some 12,500 new clients throughout the country. The number of active cases at the end of the year was some 14,900. The demand for the service can be attributed to the increase in the availability of credit generally and to the quality of the service provided by MABS advisors. In 2006, €16.4 million was provided...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: Under the terms of an earlier Social Partnership agreement the National Economic and Social Council (NESC) was asked to examine the feasibility of merging the family income supplement with qualified child increases and possibly including other child supports such as the back to school clothing and footwear allowance, resulting in a single second tier child income support. Such a payment...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: I propose to take Questions Nos. 417 and 424 together. It is a fundamental principle of our social insurance system that those qualifying for benefits must satisfy a range of contribution and other conditions. In the case of contributory pensions this involves commencing payment of contributions 10 years before pension age, payment of a minimum number of contributions at an appropriate rate...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The State pension (transition) was introduced in 1970 when it was known as the retirement pension. It was designed to bridge the gap between the standard social welfare pension age, which at that time was 70 years of age, and retirement at age 65. Because of the purpose for which the scheme was introduced, a key qualifying condition was that a person had to be retired in order to qualify for...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of a rent supplement to assist eligible people who are unable to provide for their immediate accommodation needs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. Rent...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Southern Area of the Health Service Executive has advised that it will not be in a position to deal with individual claims for back to school clothing and footwear allowance until the first week in July at the earliest. A determination of the entitlement of the person concerned to payment is expected to be made at that time and she will be notified directly of the decision. The Health...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: A Deciding Officer disallowed the jobseekers benefit claim of the person concerned from 14 September 2006 to 14 April 2007 on the grounds that she was not available for full-time work. She had not informed the Department that she was engaged in a full-time course of study during this period. Consequently, an overpayment of €5,366.90 was raised on her claim and she was notified accordingly...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The Community Employment (CE) scheme is a programme administered by FÁS which is designed to assist long-term unemployed and others who are distant from the labour force by offering them part-time and temporary work positions in jobs based within local communities. Following the placement, participants are actively encouraged to capitalise on the skills and experience that they have obtained...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The person concerned was in receipt of jobseeker's allowance from 12 July 2004. On 1 December 2006 he returned his Christmas bonus and weekly payment to his local office as he was unhappy with how his name appeared on the receipt from the Post Office. Staff in the local office explained the problem to him and wrote to him on 6 December 2006 confirming that the receipt from An Post had been...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over. All carers in receipt of carer's allowance and carers of people in receipt of constant attendance or prescribed relative's allowance, regardless of their age, receive a free travel pass. It is also available to people under age 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type welfare payments, such as...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: In order to qualify for child benefit, applicants must satisfy the Habitual Residence Condition (HRC). The requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social assistance schemes and child benefit with effect from 1 May 2004. It was introduced in the context of the Government's decision to open the Irish labour market to new EU Member...

Written Answers — Voluntary Sector Funding: Voluntary Sector Funding (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: My Department administers a scheme of grants for the development and promotion of information and welfare rights. Under the scheme grants are awarded having regard to the purpose of the scheme and the availability of funding. I can confirm that an application has been received from the organisation concerned and is currently under consideration by my Department.

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The social welfare system is based on income replacement with entitlement related to defined contingencies such as sickness, unemployment, old age and widowhood. Social welfare legislation provides that, with some exceptions, only one social welfare payment is payable at the one time. This approach is common to most social security systems across the world and is intended to ensure that...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: Social welfare pension schemes have always featured a standard qualifying age for men and women, currently 65 or 66 years of age depending on the scheme. The position in relation to private and occupational schemes is different in that the normal retirement age for each scheme depends on the rules of the individual scheme. Historically, many such schemes provided for different retirement...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families when their children start school each autumn. The allowance is not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but to provide assistance towards these costs. A person may qualify for payment of an allowance if they are in receipt of a social welfare payment (...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (26 Jun 2007)

Martin Cullen: Following a review, the person's claim for carer's allowance was disallowed by a Deciding Officer on the grounds that her means exceeded the statutory limit for receipt of this payment. The person concerned appealed to the Social Welfare Appeals Office against this decision. In accordance with the statutory requirements, the relevant department papers and comments of my Department have been...