Results 14,421-14,440 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The National Internship Scheme, JobBridge was launched on 1st July 2011. Currently, 5,163 interns have commenced internship placements. In addition, there are 2,266 internship placements currently advertised.

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: As part of the overall Government approach to unemployment, the Department of Social Protection operates a range of employment support measures designed to encourage and support social welfare recipients of working age to reduce their dependency on welfare payments. These include tús – the community work placement initiative, the rural social scheme (rss), community employment (ce) and...

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

Joan Burton: There are currently 450 applications for domiciliary care allowance (DCA) on hands in the Department, with approximately 100 new claims received each week. Each application is assessed by one of the Department's medical assessors before being returned to the deciding officer for decision. Applicants are notified of the outcome of their applications in writing. Currently, it takes...

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

Joan Burton: My Department is fully committed to recovering 100% of overpayments arising as a result of suspected fraud or error. Effective debt recovery is seen as an integral part of the deterrent to fraudulent claiming. Debt holders should be aware that a departmental debt will remain on their records until fully recovered and will result in a reduction of all future entitlements up to and including...

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

Joan Burton: Rent supplement provides short-term support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation, whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. Since 2005, rent supplement expenditure has increased from €369 million to a provisional outturn of €503 million in 2011. The number of persons...

Written Answers — Community Employment Schemes: Community Employment Schemes (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The total number of persons employed on 32 individual CE projects in Co Kildare is currently 646. There are no plans in 2012 to reduce the allocated number of CE places in Co. Kildare. In line with the national review of CE, DSP Community Development Officers are in the process of engaging with all Sponsors of CE programmes in Co Kildare, in order to ensure that Sponsors are fully briefed...

Written Answers — Community Employment Schemes: Community Employment Schemes (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: There are no plans in 2012 to reduce the allocated number of Community Employment (CE) places in Co. Kildare. In line with the national review of CE, the Department's community development officers are in the process of engaging with all sponsors of CE programmes in Co. Kildare, in order to ensure that sponsors are fully briefed on the review. Sponsors are being issued with pro-forma...

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

Joan Burton: There were 90,267 recipients of One-parent Family Payments at the end of January 2012 with payments being made in respect of 149,196 qualified children. It is estimated that approximately 46% of the recipients are in paid employment. Information concerning the working patterns of recipients of One-Parent Family Payment is not collated by my Department. Therefore, it is not possible to...

Written Answers — Community Employment Schemes: Community Employment Schemes (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: A financial review of Community Employment schemes has commenced following the announced changes in Budget 2012. All schemes have been communicated with and met by an officer of my Department. Returns from these meetings are now being examined on a regional basis in terms of the funding requirements and what savings can be achieved within the limits set down by the Department. These...

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

Joan Burton: Self-employed persons are liable for PRSI at the Class S rate of 4% which entitles them to access long-term benefits such as State pension (contributory) and widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's pension (contributory). Ordinary employees who have access to the full range of social insurance benefits pay Class A PRSI at the rate of 4%. In addition, their employers make a PRSI...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: To qualify for a State pension (contributory), the person concerned must · have entered into insurable employment before age 56 · have at least 260 weeks full rate paid contributions (at least 520 contributions after 6 April 2012). · have a yearly average of at least 10 contributions recorded (taking paid and credited PRSI conditions into account) from 1953 or from the date of entry into...

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (1 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The facilitator has contacted the person concerned and has arranged to meet him on 5 March 2012 to advise him of his entitlements and the education and training supports available.

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

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. The person concerned was awarded an invalidity pension from 21 December 2006. Invalidity pension claims are reviewed periodically to ensure that recipients continue to satisfy the conditions for receipt. Payment of invalidity pension...

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

Joan Burton: There are a number of qualifying conditions for the back to education allowance scheme and it is not possible at this stage to determine if the person concerned will qualify for the 2012 scheme. She should submit an application when she has been accepted by the college for her chosen course of study and her application will be assessed in accordance with the guidelines for the 2012 scheme.

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

Joan Burton: Information is not available on the number of applications received each month for rent supplement broken down by nationality. However, the following tabular statement details the number of rent supplement recipients in 2009, 2010, 2011 and to date in 2012. A subsequent table provides details of rent supplement recipients broken down between Irish and non-Irish nationality for the years...

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (6 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: Claims in respect of all the people concerned were processed for payment in February 2012.

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (6 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The National Internship Scheme was launched on 1st July 2011. The Scheme has made very significant progress to-date. Currently, in excess of 5,100 internship placements have commenced. The number of internship placements that have commenced in Galway City is 204. The number of internship placements that have commenced in Galway County is 106.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (6 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 13th 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 16th...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The new maximum rent limits which came into force on 1 January 2012 are in line with the most up to date market data available. The emphasis of the rent limit review was to ensure that value for money is achieved whilst at the same time ensuring that people on rent supplement are not priced out of the market for private rented accommodation. The analysis of the rental market for Wicklow...

Written Answers — Community Employment Schemes: Community Employment Schemes (6 Mar 2012)

Joan Burton: The criteria for participating on the Community Employment (CE) programme are based on age and length of time in receipt of various social welfare payments. The core eligibility criterion for CE is that the person is in receipt of a qualifying Social Welfare payment, as defined on the Department's public website. This requirement is based on Government policy and Departmental guidelines and...