Results 28,501-28,520 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

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

Joan Burton: I have been informed by FÁS that the Community Employment National Monitoring Committee, which is made up of representatives of the Social Partners and FÁS staff, meets at regular intervals to ensure that Community Employment projects do not lead to the displacement or replacement of workers/employees. As part of the overall approval process, Community Employment projects obtain approval...

Written Answers — Jobs Initiative: Jobs Initiative (18 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: The Deputy will be aware that my Department now operates a number of programmes and interventions to support unemployed people in getting back to work. The organisation mentioned may qualify for support under a number of initiatives operated by my Department. The Jobs Initiative currently supports around 1,400 people in work but has not been open for recruitment for some years. Some 23,300...

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (18 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: In 2010, the total amount paid from the Social Insurance Fund, under the Redundancy Payments Act 1967, was €469.9 million. Of this amount, €373.2 million was paid out in rebates to employers in respect of redundancy payments made by them to their employees. €96.7 million was the amount paid in lump sums to employees whose employers failed to make such payments.

Written Answers — Departmental Schemes: Departmental Schemes (18 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: Part 3 of the Social Welfare and Pension Act 2010 provides for the transfer of the employment services and community services programmes of FÁS to the Department of Social Protection and for the integration of FÁS staff managing these programmes into the Department. That process of integration is currently under way. The training component of the community employment programme includes the...

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

Joan Burton: The Estimate for my Department in 2011 provides for expenditure of over €762 million on carer's allowance (including half rate carer's allowance), carer's benefit, domiciliary care allowance and respite care grant schemes. Recipients of carer's allowance may also be entitled to the household benefits package and free travel. Sustainable public finances are a prerequisite for maintaining an...

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (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).

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

Joan Burton: As there is no facility to request by text message the application form for back to education allowance, I assume that the Deputy is referring to the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. The Department received some 18,000 text requests for the application form for the back to school clothing and footwear allowance this year and a form was issued in each case. A sympathetic...

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

Joan Burton: The Department of Social Protection operates a range of employment support measures designed to encourage and support social welfare recipients of working age to reduce their dependency on welfare payments. These include the back to work enterprise allowance (BTWEA). This scheme is designed to provide a monetary incentive for people who are long term dependant on social welfare payments to...

Written Answers — Redundancy Payments: Redundancy Payments (18 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: I wish to advise the Deputy that the redundancy payments section of my Department received a lump sum claim in respect of the individual concerned from a liquidator in December 2010. This claim was processed and a payment was issued. The claim in question was calculated in respect of a period of employment from 2005 to 2010. An element of this employment period was excluded as redundancy...

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

Joan Burton: The community welfare service (CWS) and the community welfare officers providing it transferred formally to the Department of Social Protection (DSP) from 1 October 2011. The service and the staff are now part of the DSP. The person concerned has been awarded rent supplement of €637.35 per month from 16 August 2011. This is her full entitlement based on her personal circumstances.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (18 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 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 and the...

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

Joan Burton: As I have previously advised the Deputy, my Department has, in the last number of years, been engaged in extensive data matching exercises with a number of other Government Departments and public bodies for control purposes, in line with data protection requirements. The Department has an extensive legal structure to support the sharing of data for the purpose of controlling the entitlement...

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

Joan Burton: Tús is a community work placement initiative which will provide up to 5,000 short-term, quality work opportunities for those who are unemployed for more than a year. This initiative is being delivered through the network of local development companies and Údarás na Gaeltachta in Gaeltacht areas. Each company has been allocated a specific number of placements to fill based on the level of...

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

Joan Burton: The criteria for participating on community employment are based on individual circumstances related to age, length of time unemployed or absent from the labour market and in receipt of qualifying social welfare payments. Under the current community employment eligibility guidelines the person referred to by the Deputy is not eligible to apply for a CE positions as he has not been in receipt...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (18 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 13th August 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 — Community Employment Schemes: Community Employment Schemes (18 Oct 2011)

Joan Burton: Community employment is an active labour market programme designed to provide opportunities for people who are unemployed to engage in useful work and training on a fixed term basis with a view to progression to the labour market in the short term. Some 1,100 organisations in the community, voluntary and not-for-profit sectors provide work and training placements for participants nationwide....

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

Joan Burton: The community welfare service (CWS), and the community welfare officers providing it, transferred formally to the Department of Social Protection (DSP) from 1 October 2011. The service and the staff are now part of the DSP. The person concerned was refused rent supplement for a number of reasons including that the rent payable was in excess of the maximum amount in respect of which a...

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

Joan Burton: The community welfare service (CWS) and the community welfare officers providing it transferred formally to the Department of Social Protection (DSP) from 1 October 2011. The service and the staff are now part of the DSP. Since 2005 rent supplement expenditure has increased from €369 million to €516 million in 2010. The number of persons claiming the allowance increased from almost...

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

Joan Burton: As Minister for Social Protection I do not have a role in the administration of individual cases in regard to the operation of the community employment (CE) programme. The administration of individual cases under CE is a day-to-day matter for FÁS as part of its responsibility under the Labour Services Act, 1987, as amended by Part 3 of the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 2010....

Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (18 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...