Results 17,141-17,160 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (30 Apr 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The increasing Live Register has meant that Local Offices, being a frontline service, have borne the brunt of the additional workload as a result of the downturn in the economy. During the past year an additional 190 staff have been assigned to local offices throughout the country. In addition, as many local offices are very close to capacity as regards accommodating further staff, the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Apr 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides for a weekly or monthly supplement to be paid in respect of rent or mortgage interest to any person in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs. There are currently almost 85,000 recipients of rent supplement, a 42% increase since the end of 2007 and 11,300 recipients of mortgage interest supplement, a 175% increase since...

Written Answers — Live Register: Live Register (30 Apr 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The live register is published by the Central Statistics Office on a monthly basis. The figures show that the number of persons signing on the Live Register at the 24th April 2009 is 384,448. This represents an increase of 188,850 on the number for the last week in April 2008 and an increase of 230,129 on the number for the last week of April 2007. While the monthly rate of increase has been...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Apr 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides for a weekly or monthly supplement to be paid in respect of rent or mortgage interest to any person in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs. The scheme also provides for an exceptional needs payment which may be made to help meet an essential once-off cost, such as a payment of a rent deposit, which the applicant is...

Written Answers — Departmental Estimates: Departmental Estimates (30 Apr 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Estimates for the Department of Social and Family Affairs which were published on 23 April last were based, in the main, on an analysis of trends as regards likely numbers of recipients and average value of payments in 2009. The estimates for Jobseeker's Benefit, Jobseeker's Allowance and Supplementary Welfare Allowance were significantly increased from the Estimates published at the time...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. The Executive has advised that the person concerned is in receipt of rent supplement of €435.38 per month based on household income from jobseekers benefit, maintenance payments and part-time employment. The...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The person concerned, who is engaged in casual employment, has been awarded jobseeker's allowance from 5 March 2009, at the maximum weekly rate of €204.30, less means of €48.00 per day in respect of any day worked. Under Social Welfare legislation decisions in relation to claims must be made by Deciding Officers and Appeals Officers. These officers are statutorily appointed and I have no...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: In assessing means for social assistance purposes, account is taken of any cash income the person may have, together with the value of capital and property excluding the family home, land farmed by the person or commercial premises used in the course of the business of the claimant. The yearly value of property and capital is assessed on a notional basis. In the case of property, the market...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Department's Inspectorate, appointed under Section 250 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 is responsible, inter alia, for ensuring that employers and self employed people comply with the Act in relation to Pay Related Social Insurance contributions. Employer compliance, in this regard, is monitored through inspections which include detailed examinations of employers' records...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The recent Supplementary Budget provided that payments currently being made to existing rent supplement tenants be reduced by 8% with effect from 1 June 2009 in the expectation that landlords will reduce...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: In order to target available resources more effectively, the Social Welfare Act, 1992 introduced a provision whereby a person who received a redundancy payment over €15,240 (£12,000) would be disqualified from receipt of Jobseekers Benefit for up to a maximum of nine weeks, depending on the level of the award. The base disqualification threshold was increased to €19,046.07 (£15,000)...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive 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...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. The Executive has advised that the person concerned is in receipt of rent supplement of €355.83 per month based on household income from one-parent family payment, maintenance payments and part-time employment,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Department of Social and Family Affairs, FÁS and the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment are working together to encourage as many people as possible who are on welfare to take up the training, education and employment opportunities offered by FÁS and others. The issue of this Department paying allowances has been considered from time to time. However, there are a number of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The back to work allowance, back to work enterprise allowance and back to education allowance are schemes administered by the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The numbers in receipt of these payments at the end of March 2009 is set out in tabular format below. Scheme type Numbers Back to Work Allowance 3,129 Back to Work Enterprise Allowance 4,293 Back to Education Allowance...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The habitual residence condition applies to all claimants for certain social welfare payments, regardless of nationality. Any person who makes a claim for jobseeker's allowance, child benefit, one parent family payment, disability allowance, State pension non-contributory, carer's allowance, widow's non-contributory, guardian's non-contributory payment, blind pension or supplementary welfare...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department. All Child Benefit claims require a minimum level of information and documentation to be provided and verified before being awarded. The amount of information and documentation required varies depending on the customer circumstances, for instance the child's place of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: As Deputies will be aware, the rates of child benefit have increased significantly since 2001 having trebled for the first two children and increased by over 185% for the third and subsequent children. Partly as a result of this and partly as a result of an increase in the number of eligible children, overall expenditure on child benefit grew from just under £760,000,000 the equivalent of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 415 and 416 together. The Health Service Executive has advised that the entitlement of one of the persons concerned to supplementary welfare allowance and rent supplement is as communicated to the Deputy on 31 March 2009 and 28 April 2009. The payment of these allowances is currently under review by an Appeals Officer of the Executive. The other person...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The expenditure incurred by the Department on compensation and legal fees combined for 2004 – 2008 is set out in the following table. The elements of the Departmental payments relating solely to legal costs are not recorded separately. These payments are paid on foot of agreed settlements or by reference to a Court decision. Department of Social and Family Affairs. Year Compensation and...