Results 21,561-21,580 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Places (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Community Employment (CE) is a labour market activation programme which helps long-term unemployed people (those 12-months or more in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment) and other disadvantaged groups to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine. It is designed to be a temporary fixed-term activation intervention. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The ‘marriage bar’ describes a rule that existed in most of the public service and some private sector employments, where women were required to leave their employment upon marriage. This practice was abolished in 1973 when Ireland joined the EEC. As employees in the public service generally paid a reduced rate of PRSI, which provided no cover for the State pension...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Administration (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The annual CE training budget for 2016 is €6m. The Sponsor as the employer must comply with the relevant health and safety legislation. Over 8,000 components of learning in mandatory CE training (including health and safety training) were completed in 2015. A breakdown of expenditure for health and safety training is not feasible due to the variation in fees and type of award and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Reduced rates for younger jobseeker’s allowance recipients were first introduced in 2009. Budget 2014 further extended the reduced rates to recipients under 26 years of age. This is a targeted measure aimed at protecting young people from welfare dependency. To guard against the development of welfare dependency I believe that it is necessary to provide young jobseekers with a strong...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Applications (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: An application for domiciliary care allowance (DCA) was received in respect of the person concerned on the 24th March 2016. This application has been forwarded to one of the Department’s Medical Assessors for their medical opinion.Following receipt of this opinion, a decision will be made by a Deciding Officer and notified to the applicant. Applications are processed in date of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Applications (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Upon review, my Department is satisfied to treat the application for disability allowance (DA) made by the person concerned in 2014 as equivalent to a claim for invalidity pension (IP) having been made at that time. Consequently, IP has now been awarded to the person concerned from 10 July 2014, i.e. from the first Thursday following receipt of his original DA application. Payment for the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The application for carer’s allowance in respect of the person concerned was awarded on 15 June 2016 and the first payment is due to issue to the person’s nominated bank account on 23 June 2016. Arrears of allowance due from 3 December 2015 have also issued to the bank. The person concerned was notified of these details on 15 June 2016. I hope this clarifies the matter for the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Appeals (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who has decided to hold an oral hearing in this case on 29thJune 2016. The person concerned has been notified of the arrangements for the hearing. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The person in question appealed to the independent Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO) a decision by a deciding officer to disallow his application for disability allowance (DA). The deciding officer disallowed his claim on the grounds that he failed to show his means did not exceed the statutory limit. Following due consideration, the appeal of the person in question was disallowed by an...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Applications (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: My Department informs me that there is no record of an application for disability allowance from the person in question. If the person in question wishes to make an application, he should fully complete and submit an application form (DA1) so that his eligibility may be determined. If the person in question has submitted an application for DA in the last few days, there is no need to reapply...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my department received an application for carer’s allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 2 March 2016. Unfortunately, there are currently delays in the processing of new applications.Additional resources have been provided to the CA section in order to improve the waiting times for new applications and they are working hard to make this happen. Frequently, delays...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my department received an application for carer’s allowance (CA) from the person concerned on 23 May 2016. Unfortunately, there are currently delays in the processing of new applications.Additional resources have been provided to the CA section in order to improve the waiting times for new applications and they are working hard to make this happen. Frequently, delays...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Offices (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The current manager of the Social Welfare Branch Office in Swinford, County Mayo has tendered his resignation with effect from 30thJuly 2016. The Department is examining the provision of services in the area and no decision has been made on the future of this office at this time. The Deputy will be kept informed of any future decision.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Training Support Grant (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Training Support Grant (TSG) is designed to fund quick access to short-term training where this cannot be provided by a state provider within a reasonable time or where a intervention is identified that can support individual jobseekers to access work opportunities. The scheme is activation focused and the jobseeker is required to provide reasonable evidence or grounds of need (for...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I confirm that my department received an application for carer’s allowance from the person in question on the 3 December 2015. The application was referred to a local social welfare inspector (SWI) to assess the level of care being provided, assess means and confirm that all the conditions for receipt of carer’s allowance are satisfied. Once the SWI has reported, a deciding...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Benefit Eligibility (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: 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 disability. Child Benefit is currently paid to around 624,000 families in respect of some 1.2 million children, with an estimated...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pensions Reform (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011 provided that State pension age will be increased gradually to 68 years. This began in January 2014 with the abolition of the State pension (transition) available from 65 for those who satisfied the qualifying conditions, thereby standardising State pension age for all at 66 years, which is the current State pension age. This will increase to 67 in...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Applications (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The person concerned has been awarded IP with effect from the 21 April 2016. Payment will issue to his nominated bank account on the 07 July 2016. Any arrears due from the 21 April 2016 to the 06 July 2016 (less any overlapping social welfare payment and/or outstanding overpayment) will issue in due course. The person in question was notified of this decision on the 17 June 2016. I...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The person concerned applied for a jobseekers payment on 30th of September 2015, 5th of November 2015 and 22nd December 2015,and at the time of making each application they were requested to submit proof of residency. As this documentation was not submitted, each application closed without going into payment. Proof of residency was submitted to the Intreo Office concerned on the 19th of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Waiting Times (21 Jun 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The information requested (where available) by the Deputy is detailed in the following tabular statement. Social Welfare claims by average waiting times - 31 May 2016 Scheme Average Waiting Time (weeks) Jobseeker's Benefit 1 Jobseeker's Allowance 2 One-Parent Family Payment 5 State Pension Contributory (Dom) 6 Widow’s, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner’s Contributory...