Results 3,461-3,480 of 4,893 for speaker:Séamus Brennan

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 283 and 285 together. The prevention of fraud and abuse of the social welfare system is an integral part of the day-to-day work of my Department. A key objective of my Department's control strategy is to ensure that we pay the right person the right amount of money at the right time. A four-pronged approach has been adopted by the Department to meet this...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 284 and 287 together. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General refers to 10,000 invalid PPS numbers rather than bogus numbers. Ongoing work to improve the integrity of the data on the Department's central records system database initially uncovered these invalid numbers. These PPS numbers were mainly old numbers on the database and were incorrectly...

Written Answers — Computerisation Programme: Computerisation Programme (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The current computer system to record overpayments and overpayment recoveries has been in place since the mid-1980s. It is a stand-alone system which requires a high degree of manual input. There is a major project in place to replace the current computer system with a new overpayments and debt management system. It is intended that this new computer system will better support my Department's...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I propose to take Questions Nos. 288 and 289 together. The back-to-education allowance is a second-chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active workforce. The number of persons participating in the back-to-education...

Written Answers — Interdepartmental Committees: Interdepartmental Committees (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The long-term care working group, which is being chaired by the Department of the Taoiseach and comprises senior officials from the Departments of Finance, Health and Children and Social and Family Affairs, is to report to the Tánaiste and to me at the end of this month.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders on long-term social welfare payments with meeting the cost of their additional heating needs during the winter season. Fuel allowances are paid for 29 weeks from the end of September to mid-April and are not intended to meet the full cost of heating. Some 274,000 customers, 151,000 with basic fuel allowance and 123,000 with...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are in receipt of long-term social welfare or health service executive payments towards their additional heating needs during the winter season. About 274,000 households receive a fuel allowance, at an expected cost of €85.4 million this year. In addition to fuel allowance, more than 300,000 pensioners and other households...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The qualifying conditions for the payment of disability benefit are that a person is under 66 years of age, unfit for work due to illness and satisfies the PRSI contribution conditions. Persons over the age of 66 are not insurable under the Social Welfare Acts for disability benefit purposes and the age limit for receipt of disability benefit is 66 years. There are 62,964 persons in receipt...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (11 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The over-80 allowance is an additional payment of €6.40 per week made to people who are in receipt of certain social welfare type payments. At present, just over 100,000 people are receiving the allowance which was last increased in 1996. However, for many years the policy with regard to support for pensioners has been to commit resources to improving the personal pension rates for all...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: For the purposes of most other social welfare payments, entitlement to an increase for a qualified adult is based on the income of the spouse or partner. A qualified adult increase at the maximum rate is payable where the spouse/partner's income is €88.88 per week or less and tapered reduced rates are payable where income is less than €220 per week. The lower threshold was last increased...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The person concerned is an adult dependant on her husband's retirement pension. A reduced rate of increase for an adult dependant, IQA, is payable as the person is engaged in part-time work with a weekly income in excess of €88.88 per week, but less than €220. One of the key objectives of the 2005 social welfare budget package was to protect and enhance the real value of all rates of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The rural social scheme was introduced in May 2004 by my colleague, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, to provide income support to low-income farmers and fishermen and their dependent spouses. The scheme is payable, subject to certain conditions, to people who have been in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment or who had participated in community employment....

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme is administered on my behalf by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, HSE. Neither I nor my Department has any function in relation to decisions on individual claims. With effect from 1 May 2004, this scheme and other social assistance payments are subject to a statutory habitual residence test. An applicant whose habitual...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The household benefits package, which comprises the electricity-gas allowance, telephone allowance and free lifetime television licence schemes, is available to people living permanently in the State. People aged over 70 years can qualify regardless of their income or household composition. The package is also available to carers and to people with disabilities under the age of 66 who are in...

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (5 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: For the purposes of most social welfare payments, entitlement to an increase for a qualified adult is based on the income of the spouse or partner. A qualified adult increase at the maximum rate is payable where the spouse or partner's income is €88.88 per week or less and tapered reduced rates are payable where income is less than €220 per week. The lower threshold was last increased in...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are in receipt of long-term social welfare or Health Service Executive payments towards meeting their additional heating needs during the winter season. Under the scheme a fuel allowance of €9.00 per week is paid to eligible households during a 29 week winter heating period from the end of October to mid-April each year. An...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: The aim of the national fuel scheme is to assist householders who are in receipt of long-term social welfare or health service executive payments and who are unable to meet the cost of their heating needs during the winter season from October to April. Residents of local authority accommodation where central heating is provided at a subsidised level are not currently eligible for the fuel...

Report of Comptroller and Auditor General: Motion (Resumed). (5 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: In the case of the Department of Social and Family Affairs, the Comptroller and Auditor General's report drew particular attention to 46,000 overpayments amounting in value to €56 million. While taking on board the lessons to be learned from the report, it is also important as it shows the extent to which a minority of people often set out deliberately to mislead the Department. For...

Social Welfare Consolidation Bill 2005: Second Stage (Resumed). (5 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I do not intend to do so.

Social Welfare Consolidation Bill 2005: Second Stage (Resumed). (5 Oct 2005)

Séamus Brennan: I do not intend to do what the Deputy read about.