Results 3,561-3,580 of 12,033 for speaker:Regina Doherty

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Credited contributions (credits) are social insurance contributions designed to protect the social insurance entitlement record of insured workers who are not in a position to make PRSI contributions. Credits are awarded in circumstances such as unemployment or illness, and their purpose is to help protect the social insurance entitlements of insured persons during periods when they may...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Benefit Rates (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: The estimated full year cost of increasing child benefit by €10 per month is €146.57 million. The cost is based on the estimated number of beneficiaries in 2019. It should be noted that this costing is subject to change in the context of emerging trends and associated revision of the estimated numbers of beneficiaries for 2020.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Benefit Eligibility (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to the age of 18 years where they are in full-time education or have a disability. Child Benefit is currently paid to almost 632,000 families in respect of nearly 1.2 million children, with an estimated...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Benefit Eligibility (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to the age of 18 years where they are in full-time education or have a disability. Child Benefit is currently paid to almost 632,000 families in respect of nearly 1.2 million children, with an estimated...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 866 and 867 together. The household benefits package (HHB) comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence.  My Department will spend approximately €248 million this year on HHB for over 446,000 customers. The package is generally available to people living in the State aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Statutory Retirement Age (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: It is well known that people are living for much longer.  As a result of this demographic change, the number of State pension recipients is increasing year on year.  This has significant implications for the future costs of State pension provision which, arising from these demographic changes alone, are currently increasing by approximately €1 billion every 4 to 5 years....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 20 February 2019. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. When these papers have been received from the Department, the case in question will be...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Child Benefit Eligibility (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Child Benefit is a monthly payment made to families with children in respect of all qualified children up to the age of 16 years. The payment continues to be paid in respect of children up to their 18th birthday who are in full-time education, or who have a disability. Child Benefit is currently paid, as of end-April 2019, to almost 632,000 families in respect of over 1.2 million children,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Applications (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care. An application for CA was received from the person concerned on 5 March 2019. Additional information in relation to the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: JobPath Programme (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: JobPath is a service which supports people who are long-term unemployed to secure and sustain full-time paid employment. Two companies, Seetec and Turas Nua, have been contracted by my Department to deliver this service. The JobPath employment service commenced in 2015 and, under the terms of the contracts signed with the providers, will run for at least six years. This includes a period...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Illness Benefit Eligibility (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: There are a number of basic principles which underpin the Irish social insurance system.  Firstly there is the contributory principle.  Under this principle there is a direct link between the PRSI contributions that a person has paid and entitlement to a varying range of benefits and pensions.  Where a person has sufficient PRSI contributions, then benefits and pensions may be...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Invalidity Pension Appeals (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered in that office on 4th March 2019. It is a statutory requirement of the appeals process that the relevant Departmental papers and comments by the Deciding Officer on the grounds of appeal be sought. When these papers have been received from the Department, the case in question will be...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Household Benefits Scheme (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: The household benefits package (HHB) comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. My Department will spend approximately €248 million this year on HHB for over 446,000 customers. The package is generally available to people living in the State aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare type payment or who satisfy a means test. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Disability Activation Projects (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: The EmployAbility Service is an important service delivered by individual contractors on behalf of my Department. Service contracts have been entered into with 24 organisations around the state, servicing some 3000 clients. Similar to the Local Employment Service (LES) and Job Clubs, the EmployAbility Service contracts describe the employment service to be delivered and the funding available...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Unemployment Data (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: The latest publication of the Labour Force Survey was released on 21 May 2019 and is the official measure of unemployment. The most recent data shows that the national unemployment rate fell from a peak of 15% in 2012 to 4.8% by Q1 2019. Unemployment decreased by 18,500 (13.9%) in the year to Q1 2019 bringing the total number of persons unemployed to 114,400. Within the Mid-East region,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Illness Benefit Applications (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Payment of Illness Benefit to the person concerned was disallowed by a deciding officer following an examination by a Medical Assessor of the Department who expressed the opinion that she was capable of work. A letter issued to the person concerned on the 17th April 2019 informing her of the decision and that her Illness Benefit payment would cease from 26th April. At the request of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Disability Activation Projects (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: My Department provides a range of grants and supports to assist both jobseekers with disabilities and employers (in the private sector) to take appropriate measures to enable either a potential employee or existing employee with disabilities to obtain or retain employment. These include the: - Disability Awareness Support Scheme (DASS) - Reasonable Accommodation Fund (RAF), which encompasses...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: Since late September 2018, my Department has been examining the social insurance records of approximately 90,000 pensioners, born on or after 1 September 1946, who have a reduced rate State pension contributory entitlement based on post-Budget 2012 rate-bands. These payments are being reviewed under a new Total Contributions Approach (TCA) to pension calculation which includes provision for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: On 20th February 2019 my Department received formal notice from Balbriggan Enterprise Development Group Ltd that Balbriggan Jobs Club Contract ceased on 14th February 2019. The Jobs Club had not operated since the end of January 2019. There are a number of Employment Support services provided in the area including Intreo Activation Team, Balbriggan LES, Empower, CE and TUS. ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Data (11 Jun 2019)

Regina Doherty: I propose to take Questions Nos. 886 to 888, inclusive, and 890 together. The Roadmap for Pensions Reform, published last year, commits the Government to examine and develop proposals to set a formal benchmark target of 34% of average earnings for the State Pension (contributory) and to institute a process whereby future changes in pension rates of payment are explicitly linked to changes in...