Results 3,521-3,540 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Department's Inspectorate, appointed under Section 250 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 is responsible, inter alia, for ensuring that employers and self employed people comply with the Act in relation to Pay Related Social Insurance contributions. Employer compliance, in this regard, is monitored through inspections which include detailed examinations of employers' records...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The recent Supplementary Budget provided that payments currently being made to existing rent supplement tenants be reduced by 8% with effect from 1 June 2009 in the expectation that landlords will reduce...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: In order to target available resources more effectively, the Social Welfare Act, 1992 introduced a provision whereby a person who received a redundancy payment over €15,240 (£12,000) would be disqualified from receipt of Jobseekers Benefit for up to a maximum of nine weeks, depending on the level of the award. The base disqualification threshold was increased to €19,046.07 (£15,000)...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive 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 who do...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. The Executive has advised that the person concerned is in receipt of rent supplement of €355.83 per month based on household income from one-parent family payment, maintenance payments and part-time employment,...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Department of Social and Family Affairs, FÁS and the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment are working together to encourage as many people as possible who are on welfare to take up the training, education and employment opportunities offered by FÁS and others. The issue of this Department paying allowances has been considered from time to time. However, there are a number of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The back to work allowance, back to work enterprise allowance and back to education allowance are schemes administered by the Department of Social and Family Affairs. The numbers in receipt of these payments at the end of March 2009 is set out in tabular format below. Scheme type Numbers Back to Work Allowance 3,129 Back to Work Enterprise Allowance 4,293 Back to Education Allowance...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The habitual residence condition applies to all claimants for certain social welfare payments, regardless of nationality. Any person who makes a claim for jobseeker's allowance, child benefit, one parent family payment, disability allowance, State pension non-contributory, carer's allowance, widow's non-contributory, guardian's non-contributory payment, blind pension or supplementary welfare...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Fraud: Social Welfare Fraud (6 May 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 Code: Social Welfare Code (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: As Deputies will be aware, the rates of child benefit have increased significantly since 2001 having trebled for the first two children and increased by over 185% for the third and subsequent children. Partly as a result of this and partly as a result of an increase in the number of eligible children, overall expenditure on child benefit grew from just under £760,000,000 the equivalent of...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 415 and 416 together. The Health Service Executive has advised that the entitlement of one of the persons concerned to supplementary welfare allowance and rent supplement is as communicated to the Deputy on 31 March 2009 and 28 April 2009. The payment of these allowances is currently under review by an Appeals Officer of the Executive. The other person...

Written Answers — Departmental Expenditure: Departmental Expenditure (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The expenditure incurred by the Department on compensation and legal fees combined for 2004 – 2008 is set out in the following table. The elements of the Departmental payments relating solely to legal costs are not recorded separately. These payments are paid on foot of agreed settlements or by reference to a Court decision. Department of Social and Family Affairs. Year Compensation and...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme provides for a supplement to be paid in respect of mortgage interest to any person in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs. The scheme is administered by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive on behalf of the department. The purpose of mortgage interest supplement scheme is to provide short term...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme is currently administered by the Community Welfare Service division of the Health Service Executive on behalf of my Department. However, as part of its reform of the Health Sector, the Government has decided to transfer this function and associated staff from the HSE to the Department of Social and Family Affairs. A considerable amount of...

Written Answers — Private Rented Accommodation: Private Rented Accommodation (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. The purpose of rent supplement is to provide short-term income support to eligible tenants living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not...

Written Answers — Departmental Offices: Departmental Offices (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Department has requested the Office of Public Works to seek suitable accommodation for the establishment of a new social welfare local office in Balbriggan as a matter of priority. All available options are being examined in the context of a viable accommodation solution, taking account of the operational needs of the Department, the service needs of the local community and also the need...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (6 May 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The person concerned claimed jobseekers benefit on 26 January 2009. The Department's records show that he has insufficient contributions paid and/or credited in the governing contribution year (2007) to qualify for payment. The person concerned has advised that he was employed for all of 2007 and as a result enquiries are under way regarding the insurability of his employment in that year....

Written Answers — Pension Provisions: Pension Provisions (30 Apr 2009)

Mary Hanafin: As the House is aware, the Green Paper on Pensions was published in October 2007 and was followed by an extensive consultation process which concluded at the end of May 2008. Almost 400 submissions were received on the range of issues presented in the Green Paper, indicating a strong desire for pension reform but there was little consensus on the type of reforms required. The Government is...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Apr 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Family income supplement (FIS) is designed to provide income 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. To qualify for payment of FIS a person must be engaged in full time insurable...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Apr 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Department currently delivers a service from 62 branch offices which are operated by private individuals on a contract for service basis. Branch managers are responsible for recruiting their own staff. Each branch office reports to a parent local office of the Department. The main services provided from branch offices include jobseekers payment, one-parent family payment and an...