Results 21,041-21,060 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Administration (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 132 and 169 together. There are currently approximately 88,000 persons in receipt of rent supplement for which the Government has provided €403 million in 2013. Under the legislative provisions governing rent supplement, the Department’s relationship is with the tenant. Rent supplement is specifically for the benefit of tenants to assist them...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Education Allowance Payments (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: The back to education allowance (BTEA) is a second chance education opportunities scheme. It is designed to remove the barriers to participation in second and third level education by enabling those in receipt of certain social welfare payments to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that leads to a higher qualification than that already held....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance Scheme Payments (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: The back to school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when children start school each autumn. The Government has provided €48.8m for the scheme in 2013. The rates for 2013, which are not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but to provide assistance towards these costs,...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Care Services (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 135, 146 and 417 together. As part of the package of measures in Budget 2013 I announced, along with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald, a €14 million joint childcare initiative between our two departments. This initiative demonstrates my determination to progress this issue despite the very serious financial situation...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Rates (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 136, 183 and 420 together. Child benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to their 18th birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a physical or mental disability. The estimated expenditure on child benefit...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Youth Unemployment Measures (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: The European Commission has made a proposal for a Council Recommendation on a Youth Guarantee. In the form proposed by the commission, the Recommendation would be for Member States to ensure that all young people receive a quality offer of employment, continuing education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within four months of becoming unemployed or leaving formal education. To be...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: The overall objective of the pension system in Ireland is to provide an adequate and sustainable basic standard of living through direct State supports and to encourage people (through generous tax reliefs) to make supplementary pension provision so that they may have an adequate income replacement rates when they retire from work. Secure and adequate finances are one of the fundamental...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department provides a range of employment and work experience supports for unemployed people. During 2012, an average of 48,700 persons availed of these schemes. These include JobBridge; the employment programmes, TÚS, the Rural Social Scheme, and Community Employment; and support for people setting up their own businesses by means of the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 140, 160, 170, 474 and 480 together. The Department is committed to ensuring that claims are processed as expeditiously as possible. Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. As can be seen from the data in the table below, schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Transfer Data (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: Data on the distribution of social transfers by income decile are reported by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) from the Survey on Income and Living Conditions. Data for 2012, as requested by the deputy, are unlikely to be published by the CSO until the end of 2013. The publication of data for 2011 has been delayed and is now expected later this year. The 2011 data will include revised data...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Application Numbers (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 142, 174, 471 and 478 together. The supplementary welfare allowance scheme (SWA) is considered the "safety net" within the overall social welfare system in that it provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependants. The Government has provided approximately €718 million for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Partial Capacity Benefit Scheme (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: The number of people awarded partial capacity benefit since the scheme commenced in February, 2012 until the end of the year was 908 in total. The numbers in each assessment band is as follows: Awarded - Moderate 770; Awarded - Severe 124; Awarded - Profound 14; Total - 908. Some 38 applicants were assessed as being capable of work and thus ineligible for the partial capacity benefit...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: The Programme for Government contains a commitment to maintain welfare rates. This commitment relates to primary weekly social welfare payments intended to enable recipients to meet their basic day-to-day income needs. As the Deputy will be aware there were no reductions in primary weekly social welfare payments, including increases for qualified adults or qualified children in Budget 2012...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Equipment (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection has a number of systems which have been developed over many years to enable it to pay multiple groups of clients and to manage data in relation to its various schemes. These systems reliably deliver over 87 million payments yearly between them. Although developed independently, mechanisms exist on the major systems whereby significant changes made to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 147 and 186 together. The total cost of the electricity/gas allowance in 2013 is estimated at €176 million with 405,000 recipients. The total cost of the telephone allowance in 2013 is estimated at €48 million with 395,000 recipients. My Department meets regularly with the energy and telecommunication providers to ensure the smooth operation...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: Flexicurity is a very broad concept. While initially identified with the Danish model of high levels of compensation, weak employment protection and a high spend on activation measures, flexicurity has come to be seen as a way of describing quite a wide range of combinations of policy measures. There are in fact at least 16 combinations of flexibility and security found in EU member states...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Places (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 149 and 175 together. The 2,000 additional places for the Community Employment (CE) programme announced in Budget 2013 will be an ongoing commitment to the programme and will increase the overall number of CE places to 25,300 inclusive of Supervisor posts. These places will be approved on a phased basis from the end of January to the end of the year, in line...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payments (29 Jan 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: Social Welfare Code (29 Jan 2013)

Joan Burton: The Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare which I established in 2011 is charged with, inter alia, examining and reporting on issues involved in providing social insurance cover for self-employed persons in order to establish whether or not such cover is technically feasible and financially sustainable. The Advisory Group’s overall method of working is based on producing modular...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Humanitarian Aid Scheme (29 Jan 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 October 2011 and...