Results 1,021-1,040 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (12 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The conditions for receipt of the extended respite care grant are set out in the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2005. The following conditions will apply: the carer must be providing full-time care to a person who is in need of such care; as is the case with recipients of carers allowance, a full-time carer must not be engaged in employment for more than ten hours per week; and those who are...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides for the payment of a weekly or monthly rent supplement to assist an eligible person who is unable to provide for his or her accommodation costs from his or her own resources and who does not have accommodation available from any other source. The scheme is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for exceptional needs payments to assist with essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not meet reasonably out of his or her household income or other resources. In general, however, it is expected that people would budget their...

Written Answers — Departmental Programmes: Departmental Programmes (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The expenditure review initiative is well established in my Department. In the period since 2003 reviews of four expenditure areas were carried out under the expenditure review programme and reviews of a further eight areas are ongoing. Details of the reviews carried out or under way from 2003 to 2005 are detailed in the appendix. The objective of the expenditure review initiative in the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Under the legislative provisions that apply to disability allowance all income which the claimant has, subject to certain exceptions, is assessable as means. Following a review, the person concerned was assessed with means of €7.74 per week derived from an occupational pension. Occupational and private pensions are assessable as means in determining entitlement to disability allowance. Her...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The family income supplement, FIS, scheme is designed to provide an incentive for low paid workers with families to take up or remain in full-time employment. An integral feature of the scheme is that once the level of the FIS payment is determined, it continues to be payable at that level for a period of 52 weeks provided that the claimant remains in employment. However, the rate of payment...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Rent supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Neither I nor my Department has any function in relation to decisions on individual entitlements. The Dublin-mid Leinster area of the executive has advised that, during a recent routine review of this case, it...

Written Answers — Departmental Charges: Departmental Charges (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The main business of my Department concerns the payment of cash benefits to customers. As such there are only a few instances of charges which come within my area of responsibility. To fund social insurance related payments, social insurance contributions are levied against employees, self-employed workers and employers. Legislation setting out liability for and the collection of PRSI...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 212 and 213 together. 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 weekly or monthly rent supplement to assist eligible people who are unable to provide for their accommodation costs from their own resources and who do not have...

Written Answers — Departmental Bodies: Departmental Bodies (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Because of the broad range of my Department's activities, there is at any one time a range of working groups and committees overseeing specific tasks in the development of many aspects of my Department's services. The costs involved in the main relate to standard administrative overheads such as the staff time required to carry out the work of the groups, the publication and dissemination of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person applied for one parent family payment in January 2000. Her means were assessed as nil and she was awarded the maximum rate of payment. In July 2000 the person informed my Department that she had commenced employment. The person's gross weekly earnings were given as £199.68, €253.54, and her means were re-assessed at £42.15, €53.52, in accordance with social welfare...

Written Answers — Departmental Properties: Departmental Properties (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The matter raised by the Deputy is the responsibility of the Office of Public Works, which deals with all matters relating to property acquisition and disposal on behalf of my Department.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (17 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Deserted wife's benefit is a social insurance payment made to a woman deserted by her husband. Entitlement to payment is based on social insurance contributions paid by the wife or her husband. The scheme was introduced in 1973 and was discontinued with effect from 2 January 1997, when one-parent family payment was introduced. An earnings limit was introduced for deserted wife's benefit as...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Rent supplements are provided through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The southern area of the executive has advised that, as a result of an administrative error, the rent supplement payment due on 5 May 2005 was not issued to the person concerned. The error was rectified by...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The free travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years or over, to all carers in receipt of carer's allowance and to carers of people in receipt of constant attendance or prescribed relative's allowance. It is also available to certain people with disabilities and people who are in receipt of certain welfare type payments. The scheme provides free travel on the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment that provides income support to people who are providing certain elderly or incapacitated persons with full-time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. From August 1999, the full-time care and attention requirements were relaxed to introduce an element of flexibility for carers, while still safeguarding the needs...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The concerns to which the Deputy refers relate to the treatment of maintenance payments. Half of any maintenance a lone parent receives can be disregarded as means for the purposes of assessing his or her entitlement to one-parent family payment. The means test for this and certain other social assistance schemes also provides for a disregard of up to € 95.23 per week of maintenance...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (19 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are in receipt of long-term social welfare or certain types of Health Service Executive payments with meeting the cost of their extra heating needs during the winter season. Under the scheme an allowance of €9.00 per week, or €12.90 per week in designated smokeless fuel areas, is paid to eligible households during the 29...

Social Welfare Code. (24 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Supporting carers in our society has been a priority of the Government since 1997. Over that period, weekly payment rates for carer's allowance have been greatly increased, qualifying conditions have been significantly eased and coverage of the scheme has been extended. In addition, new schemes such as carer's benefit and the respite care grant have been introduced. I announced several...

Social Welfare Code. (24 May 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I could never put my hand on my heart and say that we are doing enough for carers, who deserve every support we can give them. We must continue to make improvements and, as I said, we have made substantial improvements, both in the budget and in the legislation that followed. The new respite grant will be paid to approximately 9,000 full-time carers who would otherwise qualify for nothing....