Results 1,441-1,460 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The back-to-education allowance is a second-chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active workforce. The scheme is not intended for students who have already commenced full-time education or for the short-term unemployed....

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned has been awarded an electricity allowance with effect from 2 September 2005 and a telephone allowance from 6 September 2005. The relevant service providers have been notified to apply the allowances to the customer's account. A free lifetime television licence has also been awarded with effect from the expiry date of the customer's current television licence.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 283 and 285 together. The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of my Department. A key objective of my Department's control strategy is to ensure that we pay the right person the right amount of money at the right time. A four-pronged approach has been adopted by the Department to meet this...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 284 and 287 together. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General refers to 10,000 invalid PPS numbers rather than bogus numbers. Ongoing work to improve the integrity of the data on the Department's central records system database initially uncovered these invalid numbers. These PPS numbers were mainly old numbers on the database and were incorrectly...

Written Answers — Computerisation Programme: Computerisation Programme (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The current computer system to record overpayments and overpayment recoveries has been in place since the mid-1980s. It is a stand-alone system which requires a high degree of manual input. There is a major project in place to replace the current computer system with a new overpayments and debt management system. It is intended that this new computer system will better support my Department's...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 288 and 289 together. The back-to-education allowance is a second-chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active workforce. The number of persons participating in the back-to-education...

Written Answers — Interdepartmental Committees: Interdepartmental Committees (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The long-term care working group, which is being chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach and comprises senior officials from the Departments of Finance, Health and Children and Social and Family Affairs, is to report to the Tánaiste and to me at the end of this month.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders on long-term social welfare payments with meeting the cost of their additional heating needs during the winter season. Fuel allowances are paid for 29 weeks from the end of September to mid-April and are not intended to meet the full cost of heating. Some 274,000 customers, 151,000 with basic fuel allowance and 123,000 with...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are in receipt of long-term social welfare or health service executive payments towards their additional heating needs during the winter season. About 274,000 households receive a fuel allowance, at an expected cost of €85.4 million this year. In addition to fuel allowance, more than 300,000 pensioners and other households...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The qualifying conditions for the payment of disability benefit are that a person is under 66 years of age, unfit for work due to illness and satisfies the PRSI contribution conditions. Persons over the age of 66 are not insurable under the Social Welfare Acts for disability benefit purposes and the age limit for receipt of disability benefit is 66 years. There are 62,964 persons in receipt...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The over-80 allowance is an additional payment of €6.40 per week made to people who are in receipt of certain social welfare type payments. At present, just over 100,000 people are receiving the allowance which was last increased in 1996. However, for many years the policy with regard to support for pensioners has been to commit resources to improving the personal pension rates for all...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (12 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: For people paying for natural gas on the Bord Gáis standard tariff, the natural gas allowance covers a credit of up to €47.67 in each two-monthly billing period in winter and a credit of up to €35.67 in each two-monthly billing period in summer. Recipients on one of the other tariffs can get an allowance up to this value. On 1 October 2005, these amounts increased to €59.71 in each...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (12 Oct 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 reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her household income or other resources. The Health Service Executive has advised that the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (12 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned was in receipt of deserted wife's benefit. Following a review of her claim by a social welfare inspector a deciding officer disallowed payment with effect from 10 February 2005 on the grounds that she had been cohabiting from that date until 24 August 2005. As a consequence, she is deemed to have been overpaid a total of €4,320.40. The person has appealed against this...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (12 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Child dependant increase, CDI, is paid with social welfare payments in respect of each qualified child up to age 18 years. This age limit can be extended to age 22 years in certain circumstances, including where the parent of a full-time student is in receipt of a long-term social welfare payment such as one-parent family payment, or a short-term social welfare scheme for six months, and...

Written Answers — Consultancy Contracts: Consultancy Contracts (12 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The Department's activities require the engagement of a range of consultancy expertise. Broadly, expertise is sought under three main headings: support with strategic programmes aimed at enhancing the delivery of the Department's services, such as the service delivery modernisation programme, technical consultancies relating to information technology systems, and consultancy assistance in...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (12 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Civil service posts at the levels of assistant secretary and deputy secretary are covered by a scheme of performance related awards. The operation of the scheme is overseen by the committee for performance awards. The funding for awards is based on 10% of the payroll for the posts covered by the scheme. Within this overall limit, payments of up to 20% can be made to individuals. Details of...

Written Answers — Consultancy Contracts: Consultancy Contracts (12 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The following consultancies were undertaken by Deloitte & Touche for my Department since 1 July 1997: review of the Social Welfare Appeals Office — 2002, the cost of this review was €170,359; and review of the role and structure of the Pensions Board — 2000, the cost of this review was €132,459. In addition, a contract has recently been awarded to the company for support in the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (13 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Rent supplements are available to eligible people 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 determining entitlement in individual cases. People in full-time education are not eligible normally to receive assistance, including rent...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (13 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: Deserted wife's benefit is a 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. An earnings limit was introduced for deserted wife's benefit in 1992. The limit, which applied only to new claims after August 1992, is currently €2,697.38 a year, gross earnings. Where earnings are in excess of...