Results 15,861-15,880 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The Department's role is to assist social welfare recipients with heating costs, both through basic payments, fuel allowance and the household benefits package of electricity and gas allowances. These schemes have been improved significantly in recent years. In addition, if a recipient of a social welfare or Health Service Executive (HSE) payment has exceptional heating costs due to ill...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Under the Organisation of Working Time Act for each of the nine public holidays in a year an employee is entitled to either: (a) a paid day off on the holiday; (b) a paid day off within a month; (c) an extra day's annual leave; (d) an extra day's pay, as the employer may decide. If the public holiday falls on a day on which the employee normally works, the employee is entitled to a paid day...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: A person claiming jobseeker's benefit who is under age 55 will be disqualified for receiving benefit for up to nine weeks if they receive a redundancy payment of â¬50,000 or more. The period of disqualification applies on a sliding scale based on the amount of the redundancy payment as follows: Amount of Redundancy Period of Disqualification ⬠Weeks 50,000.00 â 55,000 1 55,000.01...
- Written Answers — Consultancy Contracts: Consultancy Contracts (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The Department has a major programme of business, organisational and technological change under way to enable it to modernise the services which it provides to its customers. Ensuring that we maximise the potential of Information Technology is a significant aspect of this. Major IT projects require a high level of specialised technical expertise that often cannot be found within the...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA) which is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE), is designed to provide immediate and flexible assistance for those in need who do not qualify for payment under other State scheme. A number of categories are specifically excluded from receiving SWA i.e. people in...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The person concerned applied for Carer's Allowance on 29 August 2008. Her application was refused on 28 October 2008 on the grounds that her means exceed the statutory limit for receipt of Carer's Allowance. She is assessed with means of â¬280.59 per week derived from income from her spouse's insurable employment. She was notified of this decision, the reasons for it and of her right of...
- Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Details of mileage are not recorded separately but are included in the overall Travel and Subsistence subhead. There is a significant level of travel expenditure in the Department's budget, arising from the dispersed nature of our services, and inter alia, the fact that a considerable level of investigative work must be carried out in the course of delivering the Department's services. The...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: There are 2,040 people in receipt of rent supplement in Waterford City and County at present. The tabular statement shows the number of recipients of rent supplement in Waterford city and county from 2003 to date. Number of Recipients of Rent Supplement in Waterford (city and county). Year Recipients 2003 1,563 2004 1,578 2005 1,804 2006 1,737 2007 1,776 2008* 2,040 *At 14 Nov. 2008.
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The person concerned is in receipt of a one-parent family payment since 18 May 2006. Her current weekly rate of payment is â¬226.80, based on a means assessment of â¬85.00 per week, calculated at the time of her application. At the request of the person concerned her entitlement is currently being reviewed. When the report of a Social Welfare Inspector is completed a decision will be made...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the Department by the Health Service Executive (HSE), as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation, whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The Department is committed to providing a quality customer service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are issued as expeditiously as possible having regard to the eligibility conditions which apply. These conditions vary between the two jobseeker schemes and involve, among other things, the need to establish the...
- Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: PRSI for self-employed people was introduced in 1988. Class S contributions were then introduced in order to provide cover for a limited range of benefits and pensions for self-employed persons, as follows: Widow's or Widower's (Contributory) Pension; Guardian's Payment (Contributory); State Pension (Contributory); Maternity Benefit; Adoptive Benefit, and Bereavement Grant. The range of...
- Written Answers — Ministerial Staff: Ministerial Staff (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: There are currently 8 staff in the private office and 5 staff in the constituency office, as detailed below. Only 3 of these, the Policy Adviser, Personal Assistant and Personal Secretary, are non-civil servants. In total, including the Press Officer mentioned below, there are 15 staff between both offices. There are no staff assigned to a Minister of State in the Department. The Deputies may...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: It is proposed to take Question Nos. 434 and 435 together. The Early Childcare Supplement is administered by the Department of Social and Family Affairs on behalf of the Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. The total number of resident children in receipt of the Early Childcare Supplement (ECS) at 1st November 2008 was 389,000. The expenditure for these children in 2008 is...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (26 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the Department by the Health Service Executive (HSE), as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA). The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation, whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (26 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: 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 work force. The scheme is designed to enable people in receipt of social welfare payments to pursue an approved full-time education...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (26 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The Department is committed to providing a quality customer service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are issued as expeditiously as possible having regard to the eligibility conditions which apply. Every effort is being made to process claims in local offices as quickly as possible. This includes the...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (27 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: As announced in the Budget, the Government has decided that from now on child benefit will no longer be paid in respect of those who are 18 years old. At that stage, they are effectively treated as adults in most respects. This change will be phased in gradually. A half payment will be made in respect of existing and future qualifying children from January 2009 and from January 2010 the...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (27 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Social insurance is intended both to enable people to insure themselves against adverse life events such as illness or unemployment and to provide for their state pensions and other benefits, through contributions to the national Social Insurance Fund. Social insurance benefits are not means-tested. Instead, entitlement depends on having paid the required number of PRSI contributions relevant...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (27 Nov 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Illness Benefit was intended to provide income replacement for insured persons during short spells of incapacity or illness, while other payments are available to people who can't work long-term because of a disability or a medical condition. However, there is currently no limit on the amount of time for which Illness Benefit can be paid to people who have more than 260 social insurance...