Results 2,281-2,300 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

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

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 265 and 266 together. 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. In line with other social assistance schemes, a means test is applied to the carer's allowance so as to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (7 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. Supplementary welfare allowance is subject to a means test. Rent supplements are normally calculated to ensure that a person, after...

Written Answers — Departmental Schemes: Departmental Schemes (7 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The Department of Social and Family Affairs pays medical certifiers, who are in the main GPs and hospital interns, to provide medical certificates and reports for the purposes of its illness, disability and carer schemes. There are approximately 6,500 registered medical certifiers, some 3,000 of whom are active at any one time. The fees for medical certificates and reports are negotiated with...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (1 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The person's application for carer's allowance was disallowed by a Deciding Officer on the grounds that he is employed outside the home for more than ten hours per week. The person appealed this decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. In accordance with the statutory requirements the relevant departmental papers, including a submission from the Deciding Officer were sought. The papers...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (1 Jun 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Following a review, a Deciding Officer disallowed the unemployment assistance claim of the person concerned from 28 December 2005 on the grounds that he is not available for, or genuinely seeking work. The person concerned appealed this decision. However, the Appeals Officer was not satisfied that he has made sustained efforts in genuinely seeking work and accordingly disallowed his claim. An...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 99 and 101 together. The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders on long-term social welfare or health service executive payments with meeting the cost of their additional heating needs during the winter season. Fuel allowances are paid for 29 weeks from end-September to mid-April. The allowance represents a contribution towards a person's...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (31 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered on my behalf by the Community Welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Assistance may be given in the form of a basic payment, supplements which may be paid in respect of such needs as rent/mortgage, diet or heating and exceptional needs payments which may be paid where in the opinion of the Executive exceptional...

Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (31 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Under the Government's decentralisation programme announced in Budget 2004, the Department is to relocate 230 posts to Donegal Town and 120 posts to Buncrana. The indicative construction start for Donegal Town is the end of 2007 and the completion date is mid-2009. The indicative construction start for Buncrana is end 2007 and completion date is early 2009. The Office of Public Works (OPW)...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: An award of Carer's Benefit was made to the person concerned, in error, on 23 May 2006. This was an error as she does not satisfy the condition that a person must have a recent history of remunerative, full time insurable employment prior to claiming Carer's Benefit. The error and any inconvenience caused is regretted. It should be noted that the claim was originally refused on the grounds...

Written Answers — Post Office Network: Post Office Network (31 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: An Post notifies my Department in advance of the closure of any post office. This allows my Department to redirect customers to the nearest post office or to make arrangements to make payments at another post office designated by the customer. Alternatively, payments may be made by a different payment method such as cheque or electronic transfer to an account with a financial institution. Two...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The number of people currently in receipt of unemployment benefit on the northside of Dublin is 7,663, and the number in receipt of disability benefit on the northside of Dublin is 8,043.

Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (30 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Persons are regarded as being in relative income poverty, or 'at risk of poverty', if their income falls below 60 per cent of median income for the population as a whole. The 'consistent poverty' measure, used in Ireland to ascertain those who are most deprived and vulnerable, is calculated by identifying from among those in the 'at risk of poverty' category persons who are also deprived of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: For the purposes of means testing for social assistance payments such as Disability Allowance, Unemployment Assistance, Blind Person's Pension, Farm Assist, Pre-Retirement Allowance and One Parent Family Payment, any moneys received by way of a maintenance grant under the following schemes are not assessed as means: 1.a scheme administered by the Minister for Education and Science under the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: A claim for unemployment assistance by the person concerned was disallowed by the Deciding Officer on the grounds that he is not genuinely seeking employment. The person appealed against this decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office and in accordance with the statutory requirements the relevant departmental papers and comments of my Department were sought. These are now to hand and the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Currently, a single old age non-contributory pensioner, with no other means, can have capital of up to EUR28,000 and qualify for a pension at the maximum rate and capital of up to EUR79,000 and still qualify for a pension at the minimum rate. These figures are doubled in the case of a pensioner couple. In the context of Budget 2006, I was pleased to announce that I proposed to establish, in...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Section 7 of the Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Act 2006 provided for an increase in the duration of payment of carer's benefit from 65 weeks to 104 weeks. This improvement takes effect from Budget Day, 7 December 2005. Section 48 of the Act also amended the Carer's Leave Act 2001 to provide for a corresponding increase in the duration of carers's leave from 65 weeks to 104 weeks....

Written Answers — Departmental Bodies: Departmental Bodies (30 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The five statutory agencies operating under the aegis of my Department are the Pensions Board, the Combat Poverty Agency, Comhairle, the Social Welfare Tribunal, and the Family Support Agency. Pensions Board The Pensions Board was established to regulate occupational pension schemes and Personal Retirement Savings Accounts (PRSAs) in Ireland as part of its statutory role to monitor and...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of a rent supplement to assist eligible people who are unable to provide for their immediate accommodation needs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. Under the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 May 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 were this occurs in a...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 May 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders on long-term social welfare or health service executive payments with meeting the cost of their additional heating needs during the winter season. Fuel allowances are paid for 29 weeks from end-September to mid-April. The allowance represents a contribution towards a person's normal heating expenses. The scheme has been improved in...