Results 20,361-20,380 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Eligibility (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The aim of Community Employment (CE) remains as an active labour market programme with the emphasis on progression into employment and/or further education and training. The core eligibility criterion for CE is that the person is in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment and is either long term unemployed or socially marginalised. At present, persons signing for credits or who are...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Appeals (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 17th January 2013. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. These papers were received in the Social Welfare Appeals Office on 13...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community and Employment Schemes (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 311, 323, 327, 337 and 338 together. TÚS, the community work placement initiative introduced during 2011, was initially set up to provide up to 5,000 short-term, quality work opportunities for those who are unemployed for more than a year. As part of the 2013 budget package for the Department of Social Protection, the number of places on Tús is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Ministerial Meetings (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The main item on the agenda of the recent Council of Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Ministers (EPSCO) meeting in Brussels was youth unemployment. Under my chairmanship, EPSCO gave political agreement to a Council Recommendation on an EU-wide Youth Guarantee. The EPSCO Recommendation is that each Member State should ensure that young people receive a quality offer of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rural Social Scheme (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The rural social scheme provides income support for farmers and those engaged in fishing who have an entitlement to specified social welfare payments. Participants are engaged for 19½ hours per week to provide certain services of benefit to rural communities. The scheme currently provides work opportunities for around 2,600 participants and 130 supervisory staff. The funds allocated...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Welfare Services (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: My Department is examining at present ways to make the delivery of the welfare service more efficient in the areas concerned, having regard to available resources, both currently and in the future. One model of delivery that has been successful in other areas of Dublin is consolidation of smaller offices, with limited opening times and availability, into a central unit in the area that has...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the disability allowance claim of the person concerned was disallowed following an assessment by a Medical Assessor who expressed the opinion that she was medically unsuitable for the allowance. An appeal was registered on 10 December 2012 and in accordance with the statutory procedures the relevant department papers and the comments of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Care Services (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: I am very conscious that the forthcoming changes to the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme highlight the need for additional supports to be in place for lone parents who will be affected by these changes. In particular, there will be a need for additional after-school child care provision to be made available in order to assist former OFP recipients to make their transition into...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Eligibility (12 Mar 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. Entitlement to invalidity pension can only be fully determined on receipt of a completed application form. To date no application has been received from the person concerned.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Strategies (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 318, 320 and 321 together. The Department is committed to delivering the best possible service to its customers and works to ensure that claims are processed in the most efficient and expeditious way possible, having regard to the eligibility conditions that apply to each scheme. There are no significant backlogs of new claims awaiting decision in illness...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Illness Benefit Applications (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: There are currently 25 Medical Assessors employed in my Department, including the Chief Medical Adviser and the Deputy Chief Medical Adviser. Of this number, 3 were appointed this week. All of the staff in question serve on a full-time basis. A public competition was held to appoint additional Medical Assessors in 2012 and my Department is liaising with the Public Appointments Service with a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Equipment (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The IT system used by the Department of Social Protection to accept and process illness benefit claims is the Integrated Short-Term Scheme (ISTS) computer system. This system provides an integrated IT service for the administration, processing and generation of payments in respect of illness benefit claims. This system also handles the processing of claims for all short term schemes. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Appeals (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 24th August 2012. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. When received, the appeal in question will be referred in to an Appeals...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code Issues (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: There is no specific group of self-employed people who fit into the above category, as each case is examined on an individual basis. If a person has not fully discharged their liabilities to the Revenue Commissioners under self-assessment, PRSI may be incorrectly returned and in such circumstances underpayments can occur. It should be noted that all outstanding PRSI liabilities in relation...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement Appeals (12 Mar 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 26th March 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...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The person concerned appealed the decision to disallow his claim for jobseeker’s allowance on the basis that his means were is excess of the permitted amount. As a result of this the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office recommended that a review of his means be carried out by the Social Welfare Local Office. Additional documentation was received from the person concerned and a...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The household benefits package comprises the electricity/gas allowance, the telephone allowance and the free television licence. In 2013, my Department will spend an estimated €284 million on this scheme, providing some 410,000 customers with a package worth almost €700 per year. The estimated expenditure on the television licence element of the household benefits package for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: The person concerned is employed casually and each week is paid a jobseeker's payment, by cheque, in respect of days on which she is unemployed. She should submit dockets on a weekly basis upon which the number of days worked is stated. Cheques are then issued when the docket is received from the client. However, if the docket is not received or is late in arriving at the Local Office, the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (12 Mar 2013)

Joan Burton: An unemployed person may qualify for jobseeker’s benefit or jobseeker’s allowance. Jobseeker’s benefit is based on a person’s social insurance record and jobseeker’s allowance is based on weekly means. A fundamental qualifying condition for a jobseeker’s payment is that a person must be available for full-time work. Under EU Regulations, in certain...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Payments (12 Mar 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. The person concerned has been awarded an invalidity pension with effect from 4 August 2011. Her pension went into payment on 10 January 2013. Arrears due, less any benefit or assistance paid for the period, will be in the...