Results 13,741-13,760 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (31 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 3rd October 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 9th...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (31 Jan 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 10th September 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 10th...

Social Welfare Code (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The domiciliary care allowance, DCA, is a monthly payment to the parent or guardian of a child with a disability so severe that the child requires care and attention and-or supervision substantially in excess of another child of the same age. This care and attention must be provided to allow the child to deal with the activities of daily living, and she or he must be likely to require this...

Social Welfare Code (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: I want to discuss what is happening in terms of numbers. Some 55% of the claims for children with autism-related conditions were allowed from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2011. These statistics are based on a total of 920 DCA applications processed during that period, with a stated medical condition within the autism spectrum. Of these, 507 were deemed to satisfy the qualifying criteria, and...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The challenges facing the Irish pension system are significant. There are currently six people of working age for every pensioner and this ratio is expected to decrease to approximately two to one by 2050. In addition, those aged over 65 will account for a greater proportion of the population while the proportion who are of working age is expected to decline. With increases in life...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the disability allowance claim of the person concerned was disallowed by a Deciding Officer following an assessment by a Medical Assessor of the Department who expressed the opinion that he was medically unsuitable for the allowance. An appeal was registered on 26 October 2011 and in accordance with the statutory procedures the relevant...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that it has not received an appeal from the person concerned. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions on social welfare entitlements.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The person concerned has made an application for rent supplement and has been requested to provide further information in order to process her claim. A decision will be made on her application when the information has been provided. The Department requested the information on 14 December 2011.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: My Department has set up Oireachtas Member's Enquiry Lines for each service area. In relation to Rent Supplement, which forms part of the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme, a dedicated e-mail box has been created for such queries. The address is: TDREPS.SuppWelfareAllowance@welfare.ie All queries to this address are dealt with promptly.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: One of the conditions for receipt of the household benefits package is that an applicant who is under age 70, must be living alone or only with excepted people. These excepted people include: a qualified adult; a dependent child or children aged between 18 and 22 years of age, if in full-time education; a person who would qualify for the allowances in his or her own right; or a person...

Written Answers — Community Employment: Community Employment (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: I have directed that a review of the financial resources of individual community employment schemes be completed by the end of March of this year. The purpose of the review is to examine the income and funding of sponsoring organisations in terms of their ability to continue to deliver the programme. As part of the review alternative sources of support will be examined, particularly the level...

Written Answers — Community Employment: Community Employment (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: Supervisors of Community Employment schemes are employed by independent, community and voluntary organisations. As such these sponsoring groups are the employer and are bound by employment legislations and requirements, including Redundancy legislation. It is the responsibility of the employer to pay statutory redundancy to all eligible employees. An employer who pays statutory redundancy...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The person concerned was overpaid rent supplement in respect of the period from 1 August 2008 to 31 July 2009. The overpayment arose when her means were revised retrospectively to take account of her increased household income.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: An application for domiciliary care allowance was received on 14th June 2011. This application was referred to one of the Department's Medical Assessors who found that the child was not medically eligible for the allowance. A letter issued on 26th August 2011 where the customer was advised of the decision. The person concerned subsequently lodged an appeal against this decision. As part...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that it has not received an appeal from the person concerned. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions on social welfare entitlements.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 29th August 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 20th ...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 28 January 2012. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Social Welfare Services on the grounds of appeal be sought. When received, the appeal in question will be referred in due course to an Appeals...

Back to Education Allowance (2 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: I thank Deputy McCarthy for raising this important issue. The back to education allowance, BTEA, scheme is a second chance education opportunity scheme designed to remove the barriers to participation in second and third level education by enabling eligible people on certain social welfare payments to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that...

Back to Education Allowance (2 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: I appreciate the dilemma and the almost catch-22 in regard to the points qualification and the anomaly Deputy McCarthy raised. He will appreciate that the role of the Department of Social Protection, in supporting students on the back to education allowance, is income support. We do not get involved in the technical educational qualification side of it because that is not our competence but...

Back to Education Allowance (2 Feb 2012)

Joan Burton: Perhaps that committee could look at this. There are 25,700 participants on back to education. Some 43% of them are in second level while the majority are in third level. The cost is very high. We spent €200 million last year and we will spend €183 million this year. As the Deputy identified, it is money well spent if people move on to employment but we have a limited budget. It...