Results 2,261-2,280 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Departmental Correspondence: Departmental Correspondence (15 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: A total of 6 mailshots have issued to Child Benefit recipients in the past 5 years, resulting in some EUR 22m being saved. A single claim termination can result in annual savings of up to EUR 10,000. Use of mailshots is one of a number of communications methods used by my Department. Apart from informing customers of developments which affect them, there is also a significant control benefit...

Written Answers — Ombudsman Services: Ombudsman Services (14 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Pensions Ombudsman, Mr Paul Kenny, was appointed on the 28th April 2003 and his office commenced operations in September of that year. Under the Pensions Act the Pensions Ombudsman has the power to investigate and determine; complaints made by or on behalf of beneficiaries of occupational pension schemes or Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) who allege that they have suffered...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The carer's allowance is a social assistance payment which provides income support to people who are providing certain elderly or incapacitated persons with full time care and attention and whose incomes fall below a certain limit. The primary objective of the social welfare system is to provide income support and, as a general rule, only one weekly social welfare payment is payable to an...

Written Answers — Departmental Schemes: Departmental Schemes (14 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Free Travel scheme is available to all people living in the State aged 66 years, or over, to all carers in receipt of Carer's Allowance and to carers of people in receipt of Constant Attendance or Prescribed Relative's Allowance. The scheme is also available to certain people with disabilities and people who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments. People who are in receipt of a...

Written Answers — National Car Test: National Car Test (14 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The issue of fees charged for the National Car Test and any special arrangements in relation to them would be a matter for my colleague, the Minister for Transport. There are, to my knowledge, no plans at present for arrangements on the lines proposed.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare Division of the Health Service Executive. Neither I nor my Department has any function in relation to decisions on individual claims. The Executive has advised that a rent supplement application was received from the person concerned on 6th October 2005 but it has...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The number of Disability Allowance claims awaiting decision was 4,443 on 2nd June 2006. In addition 198 decisions made on disability allowance claims were in the course of being notified to the applicants concerned on that date. To put those data in perspective, just over 20,000 claims were received in 2005, while almost 7,700 claims were received in the first five months of 2006. Entitlement...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Child dependant allowances are paid in addition to weekly social welfare payments in respect of over 256,700 children at full rate and almost 84,500 at half rate. The rate of child dependant allowance was last increased in 1994. The current rates of payment are EUR16.80, EUR19.30 and EUR21.60. The following appendix shows the rates of child dependant allowance for each scheme. The policy...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: To qualify for unemployment payments a person must have lost employment and must satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking work. Subject to certain conditions it is possible for a person to qualify for payment for part of a week while being employed for the rest of the week. Special arrangements exist in relation to systematic short-time working where this occurs in...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (13 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Recipients of Social Welfare or Health Service Executive payments who have been prescribed a special diet as a result of a specified medical condition, and whose means are insufficient to meet their needs, may qualify for a diet supplement under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. This scheme and related supplements are administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (13 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Neither I nor my Department has any function in relation to decisions on individual claims. The Health Service Executive has advised that the correct rate of rent supplement is in payment based on the information it has...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (13 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The question refers to a situation where a person is not eligible for the respite care grant because she is employed for more than 15 hours per week. From June 2005, the annual respite care grant was extended to all carers who are providing full-time care to a person who needs such care regardless of their income or whether they are in receipt of carer's allowance or carer's benefit. This...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (13 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: There are currently 66 Social Welfare Branch Offices at various locations throughout the country. Each Branch Office is operated and managed by a Branch Manager who is required to act as an agent for the Department in the area served by the office. Under the terms and conditions of their appointment Branch Managers are required to provide suitable premises and such clerical support as may be...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (8 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Unlike other social welfare payments requiring qualifying contributions or assessment of means, child benefit is a universal payment, paid in respect of children up to the age of 16 years regardless of the level or source of parental income. It continues to be paid in respect of children up to age 19 who are in full-time education, or who have a physical or mental disability. The policy of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (8 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The National Pensions Review was published in January and it includes recommendations from the Pensions Board designed to encourage people to continue working after normal retirement age. The measures suggested involve allowing people to defer receiving their social welfare pension and to grant them an actuarially enhanced payment when they do claim. The Pensions Board also considered that if...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (7 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: At present there are 25,788 people in receipt of carer's allowance, of which 2,788 provide full time care to two people. There are a further 1,042 people in receipt of carer's benefit at present and 103 of those are providing care to two people. In Budget 2006, I provided for a significant increase in the rates of carer's allowance and carer's benefit. From January this year, the rate of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (7 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned is currently in receipt of disability benefit. He applied for invalidity pension on 14 March 2006 and that claim was disallowed on 25 May 2006. The principal conditions for entitlement to invalidity pension are that a person must satisfy both medical eligibility criteria and social insurance conditions. The person concerned currently satisfies the social insurance...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (7 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: In general, a student undergoing a full-time course of study, instruction or training is disqualified from receiving unemployment assistance. This disqualification also extends to the holiday periods, including the summer holidays. An exception is made in the case of mature students i.e. persons over age 23 years on or before 1 January in the year in which the course of study commences. Such...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (7 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The major Government discussion paper, 'Proposals for Supporting Lone Parents' which I launched in March this year, addresses the social exclusion and risk of poverty faced by many such families and their children. The report puts forward proposals for reform of the income support system for all parents on a low income. The report proposes the expanded availability and range of education and...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (7 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Under the Family and Community Services Resource Centre Programme, which is administered by the Family Support Agency, funding of €200,000 for capital projects was made available in 2005. This was increased to €300,000 in 2006. Capital funding is only available to those centres already included in the Programme as approved Family Research Centres. There is a commitment under the National...