Results 3,981-4,000 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE). The Executive has advised that it has no record of an application for SWA from the person concerned. If the person concerned wishes to make such an application she should contact the community welfare officer at her local...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Mar 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 persons 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 (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The claim for jobseeker's allowance by the person concerned was refused by a Deciding Officer of the Department on 16 September 2008 on the grounds that he failed to show that his means do not exceed the statutory limit. An appeal was opened on 21 October 2008 and I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office, that in accordance with the statutory requirements, the Department was asked...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive (HSE). The Executive has advised that it has no record of an application for SWA from the person concerned. If the person concerned wishes to make such an application he should contact the community welfare officer at his local health...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (31 Mar 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 entitlement of the person concerned to rent supplement is as communicated to the Deputy on 5 March 2009 and 12 March 2009.

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: They will not answer people who call them eejits.

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: noting that the average processing time nationally for jobseeker's benefit was three weeks in February and that the average for the jobseeker's allowance was six weeks; welcoming the provision of extra staff to social welfare local offices and the process improvement initiatives and other steps...

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I thank Deputy Enright and all those who spoke tonight for their constructive comments on a serious issue. The motion is a comprehensive one that covers a wide range of issues and for that reason both I and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will speak in the debate. The Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, will speak tomorrow evening to address some of the issues that relate to...

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: In addition to those 246 staff, the number of facilitators providing support for people who are unemployed has also been increased from 40 to 60. A question was asked about who would advise people about the back to education and back to work schemes. Again, we have seen significant increases in participation in the back to education scheme, which is important. We hope to see more of that....

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: We operated it on a pilot basis initially in one of the offices to see how it would work and as it is working well we are spreading it throughout the country.

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: It protects the dignity of the person also if he or she is not left waiting.

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Members will be aware that what happens in a social welfare office is that everybody turns up together on a Monday morning. They all turn up at 8 a.m. even though the office might not open until 9 a.m. or 9.30 a.m. People want to try to get on with their lives as best they can——

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: ——and they are also people who are used to getting up and going to work so they tend to arrive before the offices are open. The streamlining process will help. The average processing times for applications processed in February was three weeks for jobseeker's benefit claims and six weeks for jobseeker's allowance claims. That is the average nationally but, as I indicated, there are...

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: There is no question of that.

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I am sorry. I thought the Deputy was talking about bringing community welfare officers to Dublin.

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The social welfare payments they make will all be kept at local bases also.

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The payments are extensive. They include the basic weekly payments, rent and mortgage interest supplements, diet supplements, miscellaneous other supplements, exceptional needs payments, and urgent needs payments. Total expenditure on the supplementary welfare allowance scheme in 2008 was €882 million, which is a substantial amount of money. The Department funds the HSE on the basis of...

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: This is in the context of looking for the mortgage interest supplement. If their mortgage repayments can be put on hold or renegotiated, that would also be a help. The mortgage interest supplement is something on which people can fall back. The scheme is being reviewed in order to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of the maximum number of people possible. We put forward...

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The Deputy was talking about employing people with particular skills to work with MABS. However, MABS people have particular expertise. They have worked and continue to work with the financial institutions. They have said that, unfortunately, some lenders — the ones most likely to take people to court — will not deal with MABS or anybody else. However, the more mainstream financial...

Social Welfare: Motion (31 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Yes. The statutory code has it written into it that mortgage providers must recommend that people go to MABS. This is written in formally and will, hopefully, improve the situation. We put in that provision to ensure that those, almost sub-prime, lenders most likely to evict people would be obliged to negotiate with borrowers and MABS. As we know, people approaching MABS may have debt...