Results 4,001-4,020 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Legislative Measures (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Report of the Child Maintenance Review Group was published last November and the Government has accepted the Group's recommendations regarding the social welfare system. These changes will decouple child maintenance and social welfare and are significant reforms, which will be of great benefit to lone parents. As a consequence, child maintenance payments will be disregarded in the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: A Guardians payment is made to a person caring for a child who satisfies the definition of an “orphan” under social welfare legislation. A child is considered an orphan if they are under 18 (or 22 if in full time education) and both parents are deceased; or one parent is either dead or unknown or has abandoned and failed to provide for the child and the other parent is unknown...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Consultations (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: My department offers different in-work supports to people availing of means tested or social insurance disability payments. People in receipt of Disability Allowance and Blind Pension can avail of an earnings disregard. This allows recipients to keep their full payment up to an earnings limit of €165 per week, and to keep a partial payment and all secondary benefits up to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: My department provides a number of income supports for those who are unable to work due to illness or disability. These include insurance-based schemes, based on Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contributions, and means tested social assistance schemes. The Indecon Cost of Disability Report identified that additional costs of disability run across many areas of expenditure, including...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Rates (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: I secured approval of Government on 21st November 2023 to proceed with design proposals for a new Pay-Related Benefit for Jobseekers which would link the rate of benefit to a person's previous earnings. Budget 2024 included provision for such a scheme to be introduced in late 2024. The aim of a pay-related benefit scheme is to soften the income shock that a worker may face if they...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: My department provides a suite of income supports for those who are unable to work due to an illness or disability. These include contributory payments, based on PRSI contributions, such as Illness Benefit and Invalidity Pension, and non-contributory payments, based on a means test, such as Disability Allowance. Entitlement to these supports is contingent on the extent to which a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Public Employment Service (PES) offers a range of supports to help Jobseekers secure and sustain employment. The service is delivered, through Employment Personal Advisers (EPA) and Job Coaches (JC) who offer an individualised employment service delivered mainly via one-on-one engagements. In these engagements the EPA/JC will work with the Jobseeker to identify their...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: From 1 January 2024, the State Pension (Contributory) (SPC) will become more flexible. Legislation is currently progressing through the Oireachtas which will, from 1 January 2024, allow a person to draw down their SPC at any age between 66 and 70. In this context, the upper age limit for employed and self-employed persons to be exempt from PRSI is being changed from 66 years to 70 years...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Residency Permits (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age. Child Benefit can also be claimed for children aged 16 and 17, if they are in full-time education or full-time training or have a disability and cannot support themselves. A decision letter was issued by Child Benefit Scheme to the person concerned on Friday, 1st December. If the person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The person concerned is in receipt of an Increase for a Qualified Adult (IQA) on their spouse's State Pension (contributory). This is a means-tested payment, payable to a claimant whose spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is being wholly or mainly maintained by them, and where that qualified adult’s personal means from any source does not exceed a means test income limit. ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: My Department has delivered significant achievements during 2023. The Social Protection Budget for 2024 is the largest in the history of the State. Budget 2024 will provide almost €2.3 billion in measures to assist households with the cost of living. This includes across-the-board increases of €12 per week in all core payments and will be combined with a series of lump sum...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is the lead Department for severe weather emergencies. My department provides assistance to eligible households in the immediate aftermath of emergency weather events under the humanitarian assistance scheme. The humanitarian assistance scheme, administered by my department through the local Community Welfare Service, was activated to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: I understand that the Deputy's Office has since clarified that this question relates to the operational procedures in place regarding the review of Appeals Officer decisions and whether such reviews are conducted by a different Appeals Officer. The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Child Benefit is a monthly payment to the parents or guardians of children under 16 years of age. Child Benefit can also be claimed for children aged 16 and 17, if they are in full-time education or full-time training or have a disability and cannot support themselves. A double payment for those in receipt of Child Benefit payments issued on 5thof December 2023. The provision of this double...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: This week, my Department will issue a 100% Christmas Bonus to people on the same day as they usually receive their weekly primary payment. Based on current recipient numbers of schemes, this payment will be made to 1,248,997 people. This figure is based on individual recipients. If a person is in receipt of more than one qualifying payment, they are only counted once in this figure. This...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (7 Dec 2023)

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 in excess of the 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 of care...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (7 Dec 2023)

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. An application for CA was received from the person concerned on 13 November 2023. Additional information in relation to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: There are a number of payments and pensions paid by my Department to people over State Pension Age. One of these is the State Pension (Contributory) (SPC), qualification for which is based on a number of criteria, including a minimum of 520 qualifying social insurance contributions having been paid. For those who have paid the required contributions, these will be used in the calculation of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (7 Dec 2023)

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. It is a condition for receipt of CA that the person concerned must be providing full-time care and attention and it is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: International Agreements (7 Dec 2023)

Heather Humphreys: In addition to the general EU regulations governing inter-operability of social welfare entitlements between the 27 member States of the EU, Ireland has also concluded 10 bilateral agreements on social security with countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Quebec, Switzerland, USA, South Korea and Japan. The agreements are limited to certain social welfare benefits and are...