Results 21,961-21,980 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Data (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: As the relevant data for May will not be available until the end of the month, the tables below show the percentage change in the number of persons claiming payment under the Jobseeker's Allowance Scheme between April 2012 and April 2016, for County Sligo and County Leitrim; the change in the number of persons participating in the Back to Education Allowance Scheme during this period; the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Education Allowance (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The focus of back to education allowance (BTEA) is on providing income support to jobseekers in improving their education qualifications to access the labour market, meeting emerging skill needs and supporting those who have poor levels of educational attainment. Postgraduate courses that lead to a higher diploma in any discipline or the Professional Masters in Education (PME) are...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rural Social Scheme (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The rural social scheme (RSS) provides income support for farmers and fishermen who have an entitlement to specified social welfare payments. The scheme currently provides work opportunities for approximately 2,600 participants and 130 supervisory staff to provide certain services of benefit to rural communities. Funding allocated for the scheme in 2016 is €44.3m. Assuming that...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Disability Allowance Appeals (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Disability allowance (DA) is a payment made to certain persons between the ages of 16 and 66 and who, because of a specified disability, are substantially restricted in obtaining work otherwise suitable to their age, experience and qualifications. Applicants must also satisfy a means test and be habitually resident in the State. There is no provision to award DA outside of these conditions...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 5th April 2016. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought from the Department of Social Protection. These papers were received in the Social Welfare...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The person concerned is in receipt of state pension (contributory), paid under an agent arrangement by direct transfer to the account of the nursing home in which he resides. The agent he nominated for the purpose of administering his pension is an employee of the nursing home. This arrangement has been in place since 13 February 2015. I have asked my officials to contact the Deputy to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pensions (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The person concerned attended their local Intreo Centre on 20th April 2016 with a letter from their college stating that they were attending college on a whole-time basis. They had stated that they were attending the course part-time. The person concerned was advised to get confirmation from their college that the course is part-time and return it to the Intreo Office by 28th April 2016....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 185 and 210 together. The EmployAbility service is a national employment service dedicated to improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities who wish to take up employment. The budget for 2016 provides €9.6 million to run the service. EmployAbility participants are people with a disability who are "job ready" (typically able to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Youth Unemployment Measures (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Government’s primary strategy to reduce youth unemployment is through policies to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth and the availability of productive employment for young people. This strategy has been succeeding; by Q1 2016 the level of employment is up by 159,000 from...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals Waiting Times (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The average appeal processing time for appeals determined by summary decision and following an oral hearing in 2015 and to date in 2016 broken down by all social welfare scheme types is as outlined in the following tables. The table also contains numbers of appeal decisions broken down by scheme type for those years. The average processing time by scheme is impacted by the number of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Live Register Data (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Live Register, which captures those registering for unemployment benefits (including those working part-time and in casual work who draw partial unemployment payments), is an administrative record. It is not the official measure of unemployment, but can give indicative trends. The official measure of unemployment is sourced from the Quarterly National Household Survey (QNHS). Measures...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Data (25 May 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: Youth Unemployment Measures (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The Government’s primary strategy to reduce youth unemployment is through policies to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth and the availability of productive employment for young people. This strategy has been succeeding; by Q1 2016 the level of employment is up by 159,000 from...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Exceptional Needs Payments (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Under the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, the 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 scheme in 2016. In 2012 a Departmental working group made up of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: 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. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of illness, disability and caring schemes, can take longer to process. Similarly, means-tested payments...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Work Allowance Data (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Schemes such as the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) and the Short Term Enterprise Allowance (STEA) assist those on certain social welfare payments who wish to become self-employed. The BTWEA is designed to provide a monetary incentive for people who are dependent on certain social welfare payments to develop a business, while allowing them to retain a reducing proportion of their...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Live Register Data (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: The key objective of activation policy and labour market initiatives is to offer assistance to those in need of support in securing work and achieving financial self-sufficiency. This policy objective prioritises scarce resources to those in receipt of qualifying welfare payments. Accordingly the employment services and schemes provided by the Department are focused, in the first instance, on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Data (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: It is not possible to provide statistics on the number of applications for the State pension (contributory) where eligibility was determined on the basis of a partnership between spouses. The common practice is that a person will apply to Scope section in the Department for a determination concerning their PRSI status in advance of applying for a State pension. The number of applications...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Applications (25 May 2016)

Leo Varadkar: Self-employed persons who earn €5,000 or more in a contribution year pay PRSI at the class S rate of 4%, subject to the minimum payment. Class S contributions are recorded in respect of that contribution year, which assist in establishing entitlement to certain social insurance benefits and pensions, including State pension (contributory). A self-employed worker whose income is...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (25 May 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...