Results 3,181-3,200 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin
- Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The amount of prompt payment interest paid by the Department in respect of payments for goods or services contracted by the Department from 2004 to June 2009 is set out in the following table. Year Amount of Interest paid ⬠2004 789.42 2005 1,202.37 2006 3,208.57 2007 6,104.68 2008 4,006.57 1 Jan-26 Jun 2009 2,041.44 The Department issues Office Notices to all staff detailing the...
- Written Answers — Civil Registration: Civil Registration (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The particulars required to be registered in an entry contained in the register of deaths are set out in Part 5 of the First Schedule to the Civil Registration Act, 2004. Under the Schedule, the date of birth or the age on the last birthday of the deceased is a required particular, following the commencement of the Act in 2005, registrars were advised by the Registrar General that best...
- Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The Department is committed to providing a quality service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are made as expeditiously as possible. The Department has put a range of measures in place to deal with the extra workload arising from the increase in the Live Register. These include: additional posts assigned; use of...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 346 to 348, inclusive, together. As a result of an occupational accident, the person concerned was awarded disablement benefit by a Deciding Officer of the Department with effect from 18 April 2008. The degree of disablement benefit was set at 40% based on a medical assessment which took place on 2 September 2008. The level of the award was appealed on 4...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of the Department. All Child Benefit claims require a minimum level of information and documentation to be provided and verified before being awarded. The amount of information and documentation required varies depending on the customer circumstances, for instance the child's place of...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The school meals programme gives funding towards the provision of food services for disadvantaged school children through two schemes. The first is the statutory urban school meals scheme, operated by local authorities and part-financed by the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The second is the school meals local projects scheme through which funding is provided directly by the...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 352 and 353 together. A Deciding Officer has awarded the person concerned a jobseekers allowance payment at the weekly rate of â¬109.30 from 20 December, 2008. His payment is based on a personal rate of â¬204.30, less weekly means of â¬95.00, derived from benefit of parental income. His first payment including arrears due, less any supplementary welfare...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: Second level students cannot access jobseeker's allowance for three months after the completion of the leaving certificate or after leaving education, whichever is the later. Although the Department has no application for jobseeker's allowance from the person concerned, based on the information available he is not currently eligible for the allowance. His Social Welfare Local Office has been...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: Under EU Regulation 1408/71 a national of an EU state who is working in Ireland maybe entitled to payment of Child Benefit even if his/her children are resident in the worker's home country. Expenditure on Child Benefit for 2008 in respect of the non resident children of EU workers paid under EU regulations was approximately â¬20.9m. The figures for previous years were as follows, â¬4.77m...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: Under EU Regulation 1408/71 a national of an EU state who is working in Ireland may be entitled to payment of Child Benefit even if his/her children are resident in the worker's home country. For the purposes of the EU Regulation, Irish Child Benefit is classified as a Family Benefits and there are specific rules governing the payment of these benefits. Because entitlement to family...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (30 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: Further to my response to Question No. 473 on 9 June 2009, I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that the appeal by the person concerned was disallowed on the grounds that she was not providing full-time care and attention to the person being cared for. The medical reports referred to by the Deputy were seen by the Appeals Officer who dealt with the case. However, the medical...
- Social Welfare Code. (25 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The Department of Social and Family Affairs, through the wide range of services it provides, touches everyone's life at some stage. Our overall goal is to provide people with the information, financial support and other services they require in a timely and customer-friendly way. The Department administers 2 million applications for 50 different schemes each year. Last month alone, it...
- Social Welfare Code. (25 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: Each scheme is different and has different requirements. Where medical evidence is required it will take some time. To get the carer's allowance one must show that the person for whom one is caring is in need of full-time care which involves a medical certificate. It quite often happens that an application is made with insufficient information on means or household income and that can give...
- Social Welfare Code. (25 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: That there is an appeals mechanism in place is very important.
- Social Welfare Code. (25 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The ones the Deputy mentioned involved medical certification.
- Social Welfare Code. (25 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The disability, illness and carer's allowances do. The problem with the jobseeker's allowance is that the means testing can take time.
- Social Welfare Code. (25 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: The point of an appeal is that it allows people the opportunity to give further information or medical evidence or go to oral hearing.
- Social Welfare Code. (25 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: A total of 59% of appeals last year went to oral hearing. People got the opportunity to come in and make their cases, whatever the information was. I accept that the appeals system works and I know the Deputy is asking why the application does not work in the first instance but there can be a wide range of reasons it does not work.
- Social Welfare Code. (25 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: We are examining some of the areas where there is a high success rate on appeals to find the cause.
- Pension Provisions. (25 Jun 2009)
Mary Hanafin: Since the Green Paper on pensions was published in October 2007, the Government has been progressing policy in this area. We have also responded to meet the immediate difficulties facing employees, especially those in defined benefit schemes, who saw both their companies and pension schemes facing difficult situations. The collapse in equity values and the economic situation combined to...