Results 19,681-19,700 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 433 and 434 together. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that the current average time taken to process carer’s allowance appeals decided by summary decision is 33.2 weeks and 42.2 weeks for those requiring an oral hearing. The current average time taken to process jobseeker’s allowance appeals decided by summary decision is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Appeals (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The number and percentage of the invalidity pension appeals finalised in the past five years, including those which had a favourable outcome for the appellant is given in the Table. The appeals process has a statutory basis in both primary and secondary legislation. Appeals Officers are quasi-judicial officers and are required to be free and unrestricted in discharging their functions. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Funding (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection operates a number of programmes and initiatives that provides both direct and indirect support to community, voluntary and sporting organisations to underpin the provision of a very broad range of services. The Department does not provide direct funding other than in specific circumstances related to the nature of the programme/initiative, such as is the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Parliamentary Questions (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection received approximately 13,321 parliamentary questions in 2012. Of these, approximately 7,851 direct replies were issued and subsequently these PQs were withdrawn. 5,470 parliamentary questions were answered in full. There are no data available to quantify how many PQs were not answered within the timeframe.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Payments (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: I should state at the outset that it is important that, as a Government, we are committed to protecting and supporting the most vulnerable sectors of Irish society – through income and employment supports and through the provision of quality services. However, the steady increase in the numbers availing of illness and disability related income supports is clearly a matter for concern,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Education Schemes (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: To qualify for the Momentum scheme, a customer must - Be unemployed and on the Live Register for 12 months (312days) or longer, and - Be in receipt of Jobseeker's Allowance/Benefit or credited contributions for 12 months or longer, and - Be actively seeking work. Periods spent on JobBridge, Back to Education Allowance, VTOS, full time FÁS/Fáilte Ireland Training courses,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Labour Market Flexibility (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection has many supports in place to encourage the mobility of jobseekers back into the workforce. The Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme (PTJI) is intended as a stepping stone into full-time work. It allows long-term unemployed people to take up part-time work and get a special weekly allowance instead of their jobseeker’s payment. The Department also...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (5 Feb 2013)

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. This department received a claim for invalidity pension for the person concerned on 27 January 2012. The claim for invalidity pension was disallowed by a deciding officer on 28 September 2012 on the ground that, based upon the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 12th December 2012. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. When received, the case in question will be referred to an Appeals Officer who will make...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The number of appeals on hands that have been waiting for three months, six months and more than 12 months respectively for disability allowance; invalidity pension; and supplementary welfare allowance at 1st February 2013 is given in the Table. The figures for supplementary welfare allowance refer to all supplementary welfare allowance appeals, including the issues of rent supplement and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Expenditure (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The information requested is not immediately available in my Department but is being compiled at present and my officials will write to the Deputy shortly.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 448 and 496 together. Child benefit is a universal payment that assists parents with the cost of raising children and it contributes towards alleviating child poverty. The estimated expenditure on child benefit in 2013 is around €1.9 billion and it is currently paid to around 609,000 families in respect of some 1.16 million children. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 449, 450, 451, 453, to 459, inclusive, 461 to 468, inclusive, 470 to 476, inclusive, 478 to 481, inclusive, 483 and 489 to 491, inclusive, together. The information requested by the Deputy in respect of 2010 and 2011 remains unchanged from that which was forwarded to him in reply to Questions Nos. 464, 465, 466, 468, 470, 471, 472, 473, 474, 475, 477, 478,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The total number of young persons under 25 years of age in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance at the end of December 2012 was 57,776. A detailed breakdown of this number by county and age is contained in the attached tabular statement. The cost of young persons in receipt of jobseeker's allowance is not segregated from the scheme expenditure. Jobseeker's Assistance Recipients at end of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 460, 469, 474, 482, 484 to 486, inclusive, and 488 together. The information requested by the Deputy in respect of 2010 and 2011 remains unchanged from that in reply to Questions Nos. 476, 485, 490, 497, 501, 502, 503 & 505 on 6 November 2012. The number of recipients of Social Welfare at county level breakdown is not published by my Department for these...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off, exceptional and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. There is no automatic entitlement to a payment. ENPs are payable at the discretion of the officers administering the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Fuel Allowance Payments (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The Smokeless Fuel Allowance was an extra allowance paid by my Department to low-income households to help them meet the extra costs of using smokeless or low smoke fuels in certain parts of the country. This allowance was abolished from 1 September 2011. Information regarding the allowance’s recipients or its cost was not segregated from the statistics of the schemes under which it...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Supplementary Welfare Allowance Expenditure (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The information requested by the Deputy is not collated by the Department. The number of recipients of miscellaneous supplementary welfare supplements, including diet and heating supplements, is collated annually for inclusion in the Department’s Statistical Information on Social Welfare Services report. A table detailing the available statistics is set out below for the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Schemes (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government is the lead Department for severe weather emergencies and the Office of Public Works has responsibility for capital flood relief activities. However, the Department of Social Protection has an important role to play in assisting households in the immediate aftermath of emergency events such as the flooding of November 2009,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (5 Feb 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who proposes to hold an oral hearing on 11th February 2013. The person concerned has been notified of the arrangements. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for...