Results 13,181-13,200 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: Advertising for the Department falls under two categories: · Routine newspaper/magazine advertisements to advise the public of office closures, relocations or recruitment. · General advertising to raise awareness of schemes and services including campaigns on radio, television and in the print media. The amount of money spent by my Department on advertising in national and local media is as...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: I have attached a table which sets out the total number of Jobseekers' Allowance claims from self-employed persons that were processed by my Department during 2009, 2010 and to date 2011. The table also shows the number of claims awarded as a percentage of the total number of claims awarded, disallowed or withdrawn in each of the years. A separate table indicates the number of claims...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 22nd November 2011. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. These papers were received in the Social Welfare Appeals Office on 8th...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: The person concerned was refused on two separate issues, firstly on the grounds that the care recipient is not so invalided or disabled as to require full-time care and attention as laid down in legislation and secondly on grounds that he has not established that he is providing full time care and attention as laid down in the carer's allowance guidelines. On 14 July 2011, he was notified of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer having fully considered all the available evidence disallowed the appeal of the person concerned by way of a summary decision. Under Social Welfare legislation, the decision of the Appeals Officer is final and conclusive and may only be reviewed by the Appeals Officer in the light of new evidence or new facts. The...

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: A redundancy lump sum claim in respect of the person concerned was received on 26 May 2011. Redundancy lump sums claims received at the start of May 2011 are currently being processed.

Written Answers — Community Employment Schemes: Community Employment Schemes (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: Due to the current economic circumstances and the need for the Department of Social Protection to find savings of €475 million in Budget 2012, it was necessary to examine all aspects of the Department's expenditure. As a result Budget 2012 contained a reduction in the Community Employment (CE) materials and training grants from €1,500 to €500 per participant per annum. The...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: From January 2012, income from carer's allowance and carer's benefit payments will be included in the income assessment for Family Income Supplement (FIS). This measure brings the treatment of carer's allowance and carer's benefit, for the FIS income assessment, into line with how other primary social welfare payments are assessed.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (14 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all the evidence has allowed the appeal of the person concerned. The person concerned has been notified of the decision. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against...

Written Answers — Community Employment Schemes: Community Employment Schemes (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 168, 180 and 186 together. Due to the current economic circumstances and the need for the Department of Social Protection to find savings of €475 million in Budget 2012, it was necessary to examine all aspects of the Department's expenditure. We are planning savings of €27.5m which represents a reduction of 7.5% in the total 2011 Community Employment...

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 169, 170 and 175 together. As announced in Budget 2012, the employer rebate of statutory redundancy payments will reduce from 60% to 15% with effect from January 2012. It is expected that this measure will save €81 million in 2012. To give effect to this change, legislation was introduced and passed all stages in this House last week and is due to be...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 171 and 184 together. I am informed by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that, based on 2010 figures the average processing times for all appeals dealt with by way of summary decision was 27.4 weeks while cases which required an oral hearing took , on average, 45.6 weeks. In the case of illness benefit, invalidity pensions and disability allowance the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: The person concerned was in receipt of illness benefit from 21 December 2007 at the maximum personal rate with an additional half-rate payment for a dependent child. On 15 September 2011 she was assessed by a departmental medical assessor who expressed the opinion that she was capable of work. Her illness benefit payment was stopped from 23 September 2011. This is in line with normal...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: Invalidity pension is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of illness or incapacity and who satisfy the contribution conditions. Illness benefit is a short-term payment for people who are incapable of work due to illness or injury. Since January 2009 payment of illness benefit is limited to a maximum of 104 weeks (624 days) in most cases. Currently, letters are...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department makes exceptional needs payments (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure, which cannot be met out of people's weekly income. In addition to the payment of ENPs, my Department also makes urgent needs payments, which can be made to persons who would not normally be entitled to SWA. The aftermath of...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: The total estimate, as published, for expenditure on schemes services and administration, in the Department of Social Protection, in 2011 is €20.62 billion. The outturn will not be available until early in the New Year as payments will continue to be made up to the end of this month.

Written Answers — Social Inclusion: Social Inclusion (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: The National Action Plan for Social Inclusion 2007-2016 (NAPinclusion) identifies a wide range of targeted actions and interventions to achieve the overall objective of reducing consistent poverty. My Department is currently preparing the third annual report on social inclusion which will outline progress in implementing the action plan over the two year period from January 2009 to December...

Written Answers — Work Placements: Work Placements (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: There are currently no plans to review the JobBridge criteria, which limits participation to individuals who are currently on the Live Register. Given the scale of the unemployment crisis, the key objective of labour market policy is to keep those on the live register close to the labour market and prevent the drift into long-term unemployment. This will ensure that live register members...

Written Answers — Pensions Provision: Pensions Provision (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: I refer the Deputies to my reply to questions numbers 99, 89 & 102 on 1 December 2011 set out as follows. The position remains unchanged. The Labour Court recommended in July 2008 that an agreed pension scheme should be introduced for community employment (CE) scheme supervisors and assistant supervisors, and that such a scheme should be adequately funded by FÁS. Notwithstanding the...

Written Answers — Consultancy Contracts: Consultancy Contracts (15 Dec 2011)

Joan Burton: The procurement of services is essential to support the Department in providing high quality service to the public in a cost effective and efficient manner and is governed by a comprehensive regulatory, legal and procedural framework. The Department engages consultants (individuals or organisations) to provide intellectual or knowledge based services, e.g. expert analysis and advice,...