Results 3,801-3,820 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My colleague the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth has policy and legal responsibility for Parent's Leave. I have responsibility for the associated Parent's Benefit. Currently, seven weeks Parent's Leave and Benefit is available to all eligible parents within two years of their child's birth or adoption. In Budget 2024, the Government provided for the number...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The data requested by the Deputy on the number of people on the Live Register currently in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance payments, as of week ending 7th January 2024, by length of the claim is shown in the attached tabular statement. These claims are inclusive of periods where pay may have been suspended for a recipient previously but their claim remained open. For example, casual...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 973 and 974 together. My Department is committed, under Pathways to Work, to encourage the take-up of Employment Support opportunities, including implementing sanctions for non-engagement with the Intreo Employment Service. Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) offers income support to people who are unemployed and are available for and genuinely seeking work....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The latest monthly unemployment figures from the CSO for December 2023 record an unemployment rate of 4.9%; in this regard, below 5% is traditionally considered to be full employment. It is welcome that the latest CSO figures for long-term unemployment record a rate of 1.1 per cent in Q3, 2023 - it should be noted that long-term unemployment has not gone below this level since the records...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: In order to protect the integrity of the social welfare system and to ensure that the right person is paid the right amount of money at the right time, all of my Department’s schemes, including Jobseeker's payments, are subject to on-going control reviews and eligibility checks. As a result of these control reviews, some payments may be reduced or stopped and in these cases a control...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, means test and Habitual Residency conditions. An application for DA in respect of the person concerned was received on 19 October...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Fuel Allowance is a payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) from late September to April, at an estimated cost of €382 million in 2024. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. The criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to my Department in as...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions. The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that significant efforts and resources have been devoted to improvements in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. The table below provides the number of Disability Allowance appeals finalised as well as the number of these appeals that were successful for the years 2014 to 2023. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The number of claims rejected for Disability Allowance in each of the last ten years are provided in Table 1 below. Table 1: The number of Disability Allowance claims rejected, by year Year Claims Rejected 2023 16,653 2022 14,593 2021 13,989 2020 13,559 2019 ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. The table below provides the number of Carer's Allowance appeals finalised as well as the number of these appeals that were successful for the years 2014 to 2023. The...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: 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. Please see the table below containing the number of persons who were refused CA in each of the past ten years.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Domiciliary Care Allowance is a monthly allowance payable to a parent/guardian in respect of a child aged under 16 who has a severe disability requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially over and above the level of care and attention normally required by a child of the same age and where the level of that disability is such that the child is likely to require this level...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: In accordance with the Temporary Protection Directive implemented in March 2022, people fleeing the war in Ukraine have been granted status to avail of the supports and services provided by my Department. Depending on the income support scheme applied for, people can be paid at a Post Office, or directly into their account in either a bank, in An Post or in a credit union. Given the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions. The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered on the 6th September...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Invalidity pension (IP) is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of illness or incapacity and for no other reason and who satisfy the pay related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions. The Department received a claim for IP from the person concerned on 13 October 2023. Her claim was refused on 12 January 2024 on the grounds that the medical conditions...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Rural Schemes (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF) provides funding for the development and construction of capital projects in towns, villages and rural areas across Ireland. Funding is allocated to Local Authorities and other State-funded bodies.Calls for applications to the Fund are sought under two categories – Category 1 and Category 2. Category 1 relates to large scale ambitious...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Funding (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Community Recognition Fund recognises the huge efforts made by communities going to great lengths in welcoming and supporting people coming to Ireland.Funding of €50 million for over 880 projects is supporting towns and villages nationwide that have shown such generosity in welcoming people from Ukraine and other countries.The Fund aims to support the development of facilities that...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Funding (17 Jan 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Rural Regeneration and Development Fund (RRDF) provides funding for the development and construction of capital projects in towns, villages and rural areas across Ireland. To date, 215 projects have been approved for funding of €414 million for projects costing €566 million.Calls for applications to the Fund are sought under two categories – Category 1 and Category 2....