Results 19,741-19,760 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The State pension contributory is one of a number of pensions the State pays to people over 66. The rate of payment to a person is related to the number of contributions made over the years into the Social Insurance Fund by the person. Entitlement levels are calculated by means of a ‘yearly average’ calculation, where the total contributions paid or credited are divided by the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Waiting Times (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as quickly as possible. The average waiting time for new carer's allowance (CA) applications at the end of August was 17 weeks. At the end of August, there were 4,834 CA applications awaiting decision. The volume...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment Payments (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Family Law Acts, which are under the remit of the Department of Justice and Equality (D/JE), place a legal obligation on parents to maintain their children. In cases where the family unit has broken down these obligations continue to apply and relevant maintenance payments can be arranged either directly between the couple or through supports like the Family Mediation Service, the Legal...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Education Allowance Eligibility (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) is a scheme that allows persons in receipt of certain social welfare payments the opportunity to pursue a course of study, while still maintaining their income support, subject to satisfying a number of conditions. The conditions include progressing in the level of education held by the client with reference to the national framework of qualifications....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Agencies (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The company in question – Seetec Limited – has been contracted by my Department to provide an employment service to long-term unemployed jobseekers so as to assist them to secure and sustain full-time paid employment. The service is known as JobPath. JobPath was designed having regard to international experience of contracted employment services. Participants spend 12 months...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rural Social Scheme Eligibility (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Rural Social Scheme (RSS) provides income support for farmers and fishermen who have an entitlement to specified social welfare payments. Eligibility for the scheme is on the basis that the participant is underemployed in their primary activity, either farming or fishing, and that their earnings are insufficient to support their family circumstances. The scheme currently provides work...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The earnings assessed for social assistance means testing purposes generally is based on earnings net of PRSI contributions, superannuation/PRSA contributions and trade union subscriptions. No account is taken in the calculation of any income tax/USC payable on earnings. The purpose of the current means-testing arrangements is to ensure that the maximum amount of payments go to the people...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Websites (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: JobsIreland.ieis a free online jobs site that enables employers to post job opportunities and jobseekers to search and apply for these opportunities online. Over 5,000 job vacancies are currently advertised on the site. Jobs Ireland was first developed 20 years ago and was showing its age in comparison to job sites operated by other public employment services in recent years. For example,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement Payments (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Family Income Supplement (FIS) is an in-work support which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. FIS is designed to tackle child and family poverty and to offer a financial incentive to take up employment as compared to social welfare payments. There are over 55,000 families with almost 123,000 children in receipt of FIS. The estimated spend on FIS this...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Anti-Poverty Strategy (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Under this Scheme my Department supports small-scale research projects, or week long academic summer schools, under a programme of research innovation awards known as the Department of Social Protection Research Innovation Awards (DSPRIA). Awards under this programme are confined to academics and researchers in third level institutions, with applications for awards assessed by an...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The National Pensions Framework (NPF) was published in March 2010. It stated that “In order to maintain this aim of preventing poverty for older people, the Government will seek to sustain the value of the State Pension at 35% of average weekly earnings and will support this through the PRSI contribution system.” The aspirational tone of this commitment recognised that a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Social assistance payments act as a safety net for people who have insufficient income and who do not qualify for a contributory payment. The use of a means test is to ensure that resources are directed to those in greatest need. Payments from the United Kingdom (UK) are assessed as income under current legislation. If the person applying for a Social Assistance payment has a UK...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment Payments (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I wish to acknowledge the amount of time and effort Dr Millar and her team undertook in completing this study. My Department values social policy research and the contribution it makes in assisting the Department in terms of informing policy across its broad remit. The report will be helpful to my Department to see what can be learned from other countries about the active inclusion...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The most recent Survey on Income and Living Conditions relates to 2014. In 2014, lone parents were two-and-a-half times more at risk of poverty than the rest of the population. However, in 2004, during the economic boom, lone parents were over four-and-a-half times more at risk of poverty than the rest of the population. These figures are of course not acceptable but they show the long...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The State pension contributory is a very valuable benefit and is the bedrock of the Irish pension system. Therefore, it is important to ensure that those qualifying have made a sustained contribution to the Social Insurance Fund over their working lives. To ensure that the individual can maximise their entitlement to a State pension, all contributions paid or credited over their working...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payment Eligibility (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 36 and 172 together. Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make a single exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off and unforeseen expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. The Government has provided €30.3 million for the ENP scheme in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Services Programme (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Community Services Programme (CSP) is designed to address locally identified gaps in the provision of services to communities and to utilise the potential of community assets and resources that are already in place to support of delivery of services and to improve community well-being. Funding is provided to support the employment of staff to deliver the service. Funding of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Internship Scheme Review (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 38 and 44 together. Since its introduction in 2011, JobBridge has encouraged over 19,000 mainly small employers to provide work experience opportunities to over 48,000 jobseekers. Participation is entirely voluntary; there is no obligation on jobseekers to look for, or take up a JobBridge internship and jobseeker payments are not conditional on participation...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pensions Legislation (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: All dealings and decisions made by corporate or individual trustees of an occupational pension scheme are governed by legislation and enforced through the supervision of the Pension Authority. Legislation together with the trust deed and scheme rules sets out the trustees’ duties and responsibilities. Trustees of pension schemes must act in the best financial interests of the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Farm Assist Scheme Eligibility (6 Oct 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The farm assist scheme provides support for farmers on low incomes and is similar to jobseeker’s allowance. Farm assist recipients retain the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme such as the retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes. The 2016 Revised Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure of €85 million on the farm assist...