Results 2,881-2,900 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The bereavement grant, which is a payment based on PRSI contributions, is designed to assist families in dealing with death and funeral expenses. The grant is payable on the death of an insured person or a family member, including a child under age 18, or under age 22 if in full-time education. In the case of persons over these ages, the grant is paid on the basis of their own PRSI...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department operates a number of schemes which provide income support to those persons who are unfit to work due to illness or disability. These payments include disability benefit which is a social insurance based scheme. Facilitating return to work or participation in the active labour force is one of the main objectives of the social welfare system. There are a number of specific...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department provides cash support by way of weekly payments to families at work on low pay, through the family income supplement scheme. A number of improvements have been made to the scheme over the years, including assessment of entitlement on the basis of net rather than gross income and progressive increases in the income thresholds, making it easier for lower income households to...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Social protection of the population in general is provided through a combination of insurance-based payments and assistance payments targeted at need. The purpose of the means test is to ensure that, for those who do not have social insurance cover or who have insufficient PRSI contributions to qualify for benefit, resources are targeted most effectively. The weekly rate of means-tested...

Written Answers — Ministerial Appointments: Ministerial Appointments (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 791 and 792 together. The five statutory agencies operating under the aegis of my Department are the Pensions Board, the Combat Poverty Agency, Comhairle, previously the National Social Services Board, NSSB, the Social Welfare Tribunal and the Family Support Agency. The number of appointments made to these boards since 1 January 1997 are as follows: Agency...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 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 regard to decisions on individual claims. The southern area of the Health Service Executive has advised that the person concerned has been in receipt of a rent supplement...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 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 southern area of the executive has advised that it has rejected a claim for rent supplement from the person concerned and this...

Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Family Income Supplement, FIS, is designed to provide cash support 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. FIS is paid on a weekly basis over a period of 52 weeks, taking into account a...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 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 — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 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 exceptional needs payments to assist with essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of his or her household income or other resources. Neither I nor my Department has any function in...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 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 regard to decisions on individual claims. The Dublin-mid-Leinster area of the executive has advised that the only application for rent supplement it received from the person...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Up to 2005, the respite care grant was payable to persons who were in receipt of either the carer's allowance or carer's benefit payments on the date that the grant was payable, the first Thursday of June. Section 7 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2005 amended the scheme, by increasing the amount of the grant to €1,000 and by extending entitlement to the grant, subject to certain...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department's activities require the engagement of a range of consultancy expertise. Broadly, expertise is sought under three main headings as follows: Support with a number of strategic multi-annual programmes aimed at enhancing the delivery of the Department's services e.g. the Service Delivery Modernisation Programme, SDM; Technical consultancies relating to the ongoing development of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: Under social welfare legislation, decisions in relation to claims must be made by deciding officers and appeals officers. These officers are statutorily appointed and I have no role in regard to making such decisions. The person concerned was refused carer's allowance on the grounds that full-time care and attention as prescribed in regulations was not required. She was notified of this...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: A claim for unemployment benefit by the person concerned was disallowed by the deciding officer on the grounds that she has not sustained a substantial loss of employment from that which is deemed to have been her normal level of employment. The person appealed against this decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office and in accordance with the statutory requirements the relevant...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: A claim for invalidity pension by the person concerned was disallowed by the deciding officer on the grounds that he was not considered to be permanently incapable of work. 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...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned applied for carer's allowance on 8 July 2005. Following the necessary investigations her application was refused on 12 September 2005 on the grounds that her means exceed the statutory limit for receipt of this allowance. Under social welfare legislation, the capital value of property owned but not personally used or enjoyed, where it is rented to a third party, is...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: The person's application for carer's allowance was disallowed by a deciding officer on the basis that he is working, on his holding, for more than ten hours per week. The person appealed this decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. In accordance with the statutory requirements, a submission from the deciding officer was sought. The papers have been referred to the appeals officer who...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: I received the report of the Pensions Board on the national pensions review in November 2005 and the report was published on 17 January. The report is a comprehensive assessment of the progress we have made in regard to our overall pensions strategy, the appropriateness of the coverage and other targets which were suggested in the national pensions policy initiative and which have underpinned...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jan 2006)

Séamus Brennan: My Department is committed to providing a quality customer service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are issued as expeditiously as possible having regard to the relevant eligibility conditions. Entitlement to carer's allowance is based on an applicant satisfying medical, means and residency conditions. In cases of...