Results 8,861-8,880 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Benefit (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The information requested by the Deputy is detailed in the following tabular statement. Recipients of child benefit at the end of June 2020 by families and children. Family Size (No Of Children) Number Of Families Number Of Children 1 Child 251,039 251,039 2 Children 244,144 488,288 3...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 586 and 587 together. The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to some 1,580 schools and organisations benefitting 250,000 children.  The objective of the scheme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children who are unable, due to lack of good quality food, to take full advantage of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: State pension non-contributory is a means-tested payment for people aged 66 and over, habitually residing in the State, who do not qualify for a state pension contributory, or who only qualify for a reduced rate contributory pension based on their social insurance record. In order to satisfy the habitual residence condition, the person must have a legal right of residence in the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: During the COVID-19 emergency, the Government has been seeking to implement and operate supports that are targeted where most needed, to ensure continued economic activity and reduce the risk of poverty.  In March, as part of Government COVID-19 response measures, the Fuel Allowance scheme was extended by four weeks until Friday, 8th May 2020.  At a cost of €36.61...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Offices (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: It is the policy of my Department to standardise and simplify its application forms as much as possible. Plain English principles are applied in the design of all primary application forms to ensure that they are available in a simple, clear, easy to read format that is accessible to people with different levels of literacy ability. In this regard my Department has  been working with the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn.  The scheme operates from June to the end of September each year. The allowance is payable in respect of eligible children between the ages of 4 and 17 in respect of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Public Services Card (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The SAFE registration process, which my Department uses to authenticate a person's identity, is a face to face process which results in the issuing of a Public Services Card (PSC). At the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, my Department temporarily postponed the SAFE registration process.  This decision was taken to comply with HSE and WHO guidelines in respect of social distancing....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The SAFE registration process, which my Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection uses to authenticate a person's identity, is a face to face process which results in the issuing of a Public Services Card (PSC).   For those entitled to Free Travel, their PSC bears a Free Travel token,  which they can use when travelling on public transport services.   At...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: My Department introduced a series of measures to maintain social welfare payments while assisting with social distancing measures designed to combat the spread of the Coronavirus.  Fortnightly payments were introduced in March to minimise the need for people to attend and queue in banks or post offices to collect payments, so helping people restrict their movements to essential...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The person concerned reached pension age on 14 March 2017.  They applied for State pension (contributory) on 6 October 2017.  Under current eligibility conditions, an applicant must have 520 full-rate paid contributions in order to qualify for State pension (contributory).  Credits cannot be used to satisfy this condition. 520 full-rate contributions equate to 10 years of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Government has requested employers to be as flexible as possible in allowing staff time off to look after their children or other family members.  This may include offering paid compassionate leave, remote working from home, altering shift patterns around their partners work, bringing forward annual leave entitlements, etc. Where it is not possible to make appropriate...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care. An application for CA was received from the person concerned on 17 July 2020. Additional information in relation to the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: General Register Office (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The General Register Office (GRO) has implemented measures, in consultation with the Health Service Executive (HSE), to support the continued provision of civil registration services, both at the onset of and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In line with other public service providers, restrictions on public access to civil registration offices operated by the HSE remain in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 604, 611 and 627 together. The COVID 19 pandemic unemployment payment was introduced as an emergency measure to meet the surge in unemployment which resulted from the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.  In order to ensure that the scheme was simple and accessible for the unprecedented number of applicants, a flat payment rate was introduced. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The COVID 19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment is available to people aged between 18 and 66 years, and the age range is consistent with other jobseeker and social protection income supports paid to people of working age. People aged 66 years and over are provided for within the Social Protection income support framework through the State Pension, either the contributory State pension based on...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: Rent supplement continues to play a key role in supporting families and individuals in private rented accommodation, with the scheme currently supporting approximately 20,600 recipients. The scheme provides short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Free Travel Scheme (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The free travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme.  These include road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as Luas and services provided by over 80 private transport operators.  There are currently approx....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: When a customer makes a claim for a Jobseekers payment online through their MyWelfare.ie account, the Department is obliged to make any such payment to the customer in accordance with the bank account details which the customer has provided. Where the account detail information provided is not valid, a payment made will be returned by the bank to the Department.  In all other cases,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) is currently paid at two rates, depending on the amount a customer earned prior to receipt of PUP. If a customer earned €200 per week or more, the rate of payment is €350 per week. If a customer earned less than €200 per week, they will receive €203 per week, which is the same as the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (28 Jul 2020)

Heather Humphreys: A letter has been issued to the person concerned to confirm the amount of the overpayment and the balance due to them.  Authorisation has been forwarded to my Department's Accounts Branch for payment of the outstanding amount. I hope this clarifies the position for the Deputy.