Results 28,481-28,500 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: Payment of illness benefit to the person concerned was disallowed by a Deciding Officer following an examination by a Medical Assessor of the Department who expressed the opinion that he was capable of work. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that, in accordance with statutory requirements, the Department was asked for the relevant documentation in the case and the Deciding...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that the appeal from the person concerned was referred to an Appeals Officer who proposes to hold an oral hearing in this case. There has been a very significant increase in the number of appeals received by the Social Welfare Appeals Office since 2007 when the intake was 14,070 to 2010 when the intake rose to 32,432. This has significantly...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance (BSCFA) scheme provides a one-off payment to eligible families to assist with the extra costs when their children start school each autumn. The allowance is not intended to meet the full cost of school clothing and footwear but only to provide assistance towards these costs. The provision for the 2011 scheme is €82m. In light of the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 30 September 2011. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Social Welfare Services on the grounds of appeal be sought. When received, the appeal in question will be referred to an Appeals Officer for...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The community welfare service (CWS), and the community welfare officers providing it, formally transferred to the Department of Social Protection (DSP) from 1 October 2011. The service and the staff are now part of the DSP. Departmental records show that the person concerned is currently in receipt of a weekly supplementary welfare allowance payment.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: Full individualisation of personal payments within the social welfare system would involve separate and independent treatment of persons in relation to means and other conditions of entitlement and separate payments to each. There are no plans to introduce full such payments in relation to means tested or social insurance payments. However, over the years my Department has introduced various...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The family income supplement (FIS) is designed to provide income for employees on low earnings with families. This preserves the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might only be marginally better off than if he or she were unemployed and claiming other social welfare payments. To qualify for payment of FIS, a person must be engaged in full-time insurable...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 6 August 2011. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by or on behalf of the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. These papers were received in the Social Welfare Appeals Office on 17 August...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The community welfare service (CWS), and the community welfare officers providing it, formally transferred to the Department of Social Protection (DSP) from 1 October 2011. The service and the staff are now part of the DSP. Departmental records show that the person concerned is currently in receipt of a weekly supplementary welfare allowance payment at the rate appropriate to his family...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 5 October 2011. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Social Welfare Services on the grounds of appeal be sought. When received, the appeal in question will be referred to an Appeals Officer for...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: I have already indicated to this House that I wish to review and consider improvements to the operation of a number of programmes and initiatives funded by the Department of Social Protection to support people who are unemployed to get back into work, further training and/or education. Matters relating to extending the current eligibility criteria to those that are not in receipt of a social...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: At the end of December 2010 there were 17,974 people in receipt of mortgage interest supplement, an increase of 337% over the 2007 figure. There are currently over 18,500 households benefiting from the scheme for which €77.2m has been allocated for 2011. The Department's review of the administrative, policy and legal aspects of the mortgage interest supplement scheme was published in July...

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: Anyone who is unemployed is eligible to apply for the work placement programme. There is no necessity to be in receipt of a payment from the Department of Social Protection.

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The closing date for transferring work placement programme participant placements to the JobBridge programme was 31 August 2011. Applications received after this date will not be accepted.

Written Answers — Employment Support Services: Employment Support Services (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: At present the company referred to has a total of eight internships under the JobBridge scheme.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (19 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: Legislative changes were introduced to the One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) in the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2010. These came into effect on 27 April, 2011. The former OFP scheme provided long-term income support to lone parents until their youngest child was aged 18, or 22 if in full-time education, without any requirement for them to engage in education, training or...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (18 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The Dental Benefit scheme is paid from the Social Insurance Fund (SIF). Due to current economic conditions, the SIF remains under pressure and has required substantial subvention from the Exchequer. As part of a range of cost-saving measures intended to ease this pressure, the range of treatments available under the scheme was reduced in Budget 2010. The free annual examination remains...

Written Answers — Community Employment Schemes: Community Employment Schemes (18 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: In general, the maximum participation limit for community employment is one year with the opportunity to extend for a further year if this is considered the most suitable and cost effective measure to assist the client in gaining employment. A person may be eligible for different periods of engagement and extensions on CE due to their age or if they are in receipt of a qualifying...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (18 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The dental benefit scheme is paid from the Social Insurance Fund (SIF). Due to the current economic conditions, the SIF remains under substantial pressure and as part of a range of cost-saving measures intended to ease this pressure, the range of treatments available under the scheme was reduced in Budget 2010. The free examination remains available to qualifying customers to encourage them...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (18 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: There is no claim for a statutory redundancy lump sum payment registered for the person in question in redundancy section. This may be due to the fact that the application was not registered as a result of incompleteness or because financial information from the person's former employer was not presented with the form RP50.