Results 3,281-3,300 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The person concerned applied for jobseeker's allowance on 16 December 2008. Her file was referred to an Inspector for a means assessment. She was interviewed by the Inspector on 04 February 2009 and subsequent to this interview a number of checks were required regarding her identity, residency and employment record. The Inspector will be finalizing a report in the next week or so and a...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE) as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation, whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and...

Job Creation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The national employment action plan, NEAP, operated jointly by the Department of Social and Family Affairs and FÁS, is the main welfare-to-work measure for jobseekers. The plan's process is fundamental in addressing the progression needs of those on the live register. It provides a stimulus to job search and affords an opportunity to explore, under professional guidance, the full range of...

Job Creation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The recent announcements should be viewed as a package of measures. The Deputy asked about the 2,000 work and graduate placement places. It is a new initiative and there is nothing to say that, once it is up and running and people have registered with it, we should not be able to extend it. An initial number of 2,000 places is worth the effort. They will last for six months. Some 1,000...

Job Creation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Deputy asked about people who are referred to FÁS. It is always interesting to note that, as soon as people get a letter about being called for interview, they leave the live register. Some 12% left immediately. They did not even go for their interviews. It could be a control measure, that is, they might not have believed that they had been on the live register legitimately. Perhaps...

Job Creation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Of the people referred this year, 36% left the live register. Some 15% did this after their interviews and 12%, the control measure people, did not turn up for their interviews. Only 9% were placed in jobs, education or training, which is the matter on which I share the Deputy's disappointment.

Job Creation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I hope that the figure will pick up later this year. The process is being streamlined. People who leave the live register to take on short-term work or FÁS training will have their re-applications to the social welfare system streamlined. This is important because it will free up staff and reduce queues. I am unaware of facilitators being asked to work one day per week as described....

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The number of people on the live register almost doubled between May 2008 and May 2009 to a total of nearly 397,000. The average processing time for claims decided in May was 3.4 weeks for jobseeker's benefit and 6.4 weeks for jobseeker's allowance. These are averages and I appreciate that waiting times are longer in some areas. In other areas they are shorter than the average. The...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Deputy drew attention to a number of issues. There are only two offices where there is a nine week wait for jobseeker's benefit, both of them in the Cork area. In fairness to the others, one might mention those offices where it can be done in less than a week or in two weeks. In the vast majority of offices, claims are processed in a much shorter time. I appreciate jobseeker's benefit...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: We have also established the central units that are working effectively. They have no front of house contact but are solely making decisions on claims. The next central unit will open in Tallaght on 6 July. Huge progress has been made and the productivity of the staff has really improved. From January until May this year they processed 250,000 claims while in the same time last year they...

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: No, it is not.

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Tell that to the CPSU.

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The transfer of the community welfare officers is central. They spend the Department's money and the Department pays the Department of Health and Children to pay them to pay the money. That is not an efficient, integrated system. The Department has no difficulty in getting staff from other Departments but there is a difficulty in the HSE, even though they have had extra places sanctioned....

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: They are being recruited all the time as they are freed up from other Departments.

Social Welfare Benefits. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I do not have up-to-date data on absenteeism but if the Department has it, I will facilitate the Deputy.

Financial Services Regulation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, provides assistance to people who are over-indebted and need help and advice in coping with debt problems. The regulation of financial institutions, including the banks, sub-prime mortgage lenders and the credit unions, is part of the statutory remit of the Financial Regulator. Legislative issues in regard to the Financial Regulator are dealt...

Financial Services Regulation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I accept they should be involved with the protocol. When launching it, I suggested this. In fairness, within two days one sub-prime lender wrote to me indicating it would sign up.

Financial Services Regulation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The IBF is a regulatory body. All the groundwork was done with the IBF and this means there is an established protocol. A financial institution that is not a member of the IBF indicated immediately that it would sign up to the protocol. Any institution can sign up to the protocol within days now that the work has been done on it. This is equally the case with the credit unions, but one...

Financial Services Regulation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The protocol will go some way towards preventing it, particularly if the sub-prime lenders sign up. It is not necessary that they be part of the negotiation because it is easy to formulate a protocol with one regulatory body, which is what the IBF is. In the first quarter of this year, there were nine repossessions of owner-occupied homes. While repossession is extremely traumatic for the...

Financial Services Regulation. (25 Jun 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I hope that as a result of this protocol, which has been devised after much negotiation, repossession will only occur as a last resort. As long as people make a genuine effort to stick to the repayment plan devised for them by MABS in conjunction with the credit institution, we will not see this happening.