Results 3,141-3,160 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: Under social welfare legislation a person who is in receipt of a widow's or widower's contributory pension may qualify for half rate unemployment benefit or half rate disability benefit subject to satisfying the normal conditions for entitlement to payment. To be entitled to payment of unemployment benefit a person must be unemployed, be under 66 years of age, be capable of and available for...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: For unemployment assistance purposes, the assessment of means for non-householders resident in the parental home has always taken into account the yearly value of any benefit and privilege enjoyed by him or her by virtue of residing with a parent or step-parent. In practice, this is taken to mean the value of free board and lodging to a claimant and such value is ascribed having regard to the...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: The maximum qualified adult dependant increase is payable where the adult dependant's gross weekly earnings do not exceed â¬88.88. Regulations provide for the tapered, or gradual, withdrawal of the qualified adult allowance for claimants of most welfare payments where the person's spouse-partner is earning over â¬88.88 and finally withdrawn at earnings of â¬220 per week. Since the...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, a weekly or monthly rent or mortgage interest supplement is available to assist eligible people who are unable to meet their immediate accommodation needs through their own resources. The scheme is subject to statutory means test rules...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 160 to 162, inclusive, and 164 together. The 2006 Abridged Estimates, as normal, made no provision for changes in eligibility, entitlements or rates of payment for any of the schemes administered by my Department. Improvements across the range of social welfare schemes are being considered at present in the context of the forthcoming budget.
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: Fuel allowances are paid for 29 weeks from the end of September to mid-April each year. Some 274,000 customers â 151,000 with basic fuel allowance and 123,000 with smokeless fuel supplement â benefit under the scheme at a cost of â¬85.4 million in 2005. Under the scheme, a fuel allowance of â¬9 per week is paid to eligible households during this 29-week winter heating period. An...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (23 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: The person concerned applied for carer's allowance in respect of two carees on 4 October 2005. The principal conditions for receipt of the allowance are that full-time care and attention is required and being provided and that the means test that applies is satisfied. Additionally, the requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain social...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: Rent supplements are payable under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. Neither I nor my Department have any function in determining entitlement in individual cases. The mid western area of the executive has advised that the person concerned was refused rent supplement as the household...
- Written Answers — Carers' Entitlements: Carers' Entitlements (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 395 to 398, inclusive, together. Supporting carers in our society has been a priority of the Government since 1997. Over that period weekly payment rates to carers have been greatly increased, qualifying conditions for carer's allowance have been significantly eased, coverage of the scheme has been extended and new schemes such as carer's benefit and the...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (22 Nov 2005)
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. It is also available to people under age 66 who are in receipt of certain disability type welfare payments, such as disability allowance, invalidity pension and...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: For unemployment assistance purposes, the assessment of means for non-householders resident in the parental home has always taken into account the yearly value of any benefit and privilege enjoyed by him or her by virtue of residing with a parent or step-parent. In practice, this is taken to mean the value of free board and lodging to a claimant and such value is ascribed having regard to the...
- Written Answers — Anti-Poverty Strategy: Anti-Poverty Strategy (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: The term "fuel poverty" has been described as the inability to afford adequate warmth in a home, or the inability to achieve adequate warmth because of the energy inefficiency of the home. Various studies have been conducted on this issue in recent years, with varying estimates of the numbers and types of households affected by fuel poverty as defined in this way. I am not aware of any...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: The Government's aim is to increase the lowest rate of social welfare payments to â¬150, in 2002 terms, by 2007. In budget 2005, the lowest rates of payment were increased by â¬14 per week or by 10.4%, which represents an increase of over four times the projected rate of inflation for 2005. Any further improvements in the lower rates of payment will fall to be considered in a budgetary...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 403 and 404 together. The one-parent family payment, OPFP, acts as a safety net for people where there is inadequate maintenance, where maintenance payments are irregular, or where efforts to secure maintenance in the first place fail. Applicants for one-parent family payment are required to make ongoing efforts to look for adequate maintenance from their...
- Written Answers — Ministerial Staff: Ministerial Staff (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: There are ten staff employed in my private office. These include eight administrative staff, a press adviser and a special adviser. The eight administrative staff are all established civil servants, one higher executive officer, 1.5 executive officers and 5.5 clerical officers. The higher executive officer is on a payscale of â¬40,543 to â¬51,463 with a private secretary allowance of...
- Written Answers — School Meals: School Meals (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: The school meals programme operated by my Department gives funding towards the provision of food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes. The first is the statutory urban school meals scheme, currently operated by 35 local authorities, which provides food services to primary schools. The Department jointly funds the food costs with these local authorities, who also...
- Written Answers — Adult Education: Adult Education (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: My Department administers a range of back to education programmes, under the umbrella of its employment support services, to encourage and facilitate single parents and others to return to work through the acquisition and improvement of skills and academic qualifications which will enable them to compete more successfully for employment. Programmes range from basic literacy courses through to...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: The person concerned has not been awarded the household benefits package because a member of the household is receiving unemployment assistance and is therefore not considered an excepted person for the purpose of the scheme. One of the conditions of the household benefits package for people under 70 years is that the applicant must be residing alone or with excepted people. Excepted people...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: The one-parent family payment was introduced in 1997 to provide income support to those parents with insufficient means who are parenting alone as a result of being widowed, or following separation or divorce, or being unmarried. Poverty rates tend to be higher among larger families and one-parent families, due mainly to the direct costs of rearing children, including child care costs, and...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (22 Nov 2005)
Séamus Brennan: The Health Service Executive, which administers the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance scheme on my behalf, has advised that it has no record of an application from the family concerned.