Results 4,101-4,120 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The back to education allowance (BTEA) scheme is designed to help those in receipt of a social welfare payment who have not worked for some time to improve their employability and job-readiness by acquiring educational qualifications. It is in recognition of the special difficulties which such persons can face when attempting to gain a foothold in the labour market. The back to education...

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The range of benefits and pensions to which different groups of workers may establish entitlement reflects the risks associated with the nature of their work. This in turn reflects the rate of contribution payable. Self-employed people are liable for PRSI at the Class S rate of 3% and are consequently eligible for a narrower range of benefits than general employees who, together with their...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: Widow's or widower's contributory pension is paid to the husband or wife of a deceased person and is available to those who satisfy the necessary PRSI contribution conditions, either on their own record or on that of the deceased spouse. A means-tested widow's or widower's non-contributory pension may be payable to those who do not satisfy the social insurance conditions. If the person has...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 57 and 65 together. The Family Income Supplement (FIS) is designed to provide support for people with families who are on low earnings. This preserves the incentive for them to remain in employment in circumstances where they might only be marginally better off than if they were claiming other social welfare payments. The extent to which a worker may avail of...

Written Answers — Human Rights Issues: Human Rights Issues (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: This issue was the subject of a High Court judgement concerning the rights of a person, who has undergone gender reassignment surgery, to recognition of her acquired gender. On foot of a High Court judgement, delivered on 19 October 2007, the judge made a declaration, pursuant to Section 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003, that Sections 25, 63 and 64 of the Civil...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The vast bulk of expenditure by the Department of Social and Family Affairs is incurred on social welfare payments to individual recipients based on predetermined qualifying conditions and rates of payment. The expenditure, which is demand-led, is driven by a range of economic, social and demographic factors. There can also be complex interactions between schemes. The Estimates for the...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The national fuel allowance scheme assists householders on long-term social welfare or health service executive (HSE) payments with meeting the cost of their heating needs during the winter season. The allowance which has been increased by €2 to €20 (€23.90 in designated smokeless zones) per week from January 2009 benefits almost 300,000 households and represents a contribution towards...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The rate of all weekly social welfare payments, including increases for qualified adults and children, was increased, not reduced, in the last Budget. Any changes in social welfare payments would have to be considered in a Budgetary context.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: There are no plans to amend the benefit and privilege rules. Any further improvements to the means testing arrangements for social welfare schemes generally, including the benefit and privilege assessment arrangements for the jobseeker's allowance and supplementary welfare allowance schemes, would have to be considered in a Budgetary context and having regard to available resources.

Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The primary purpose of credited contributions is to preserve the continuity of a person's insurance record during periods when they are unable to work and pay PRSI in the normal way. In order to qualify for credited contributions, absences from work would generally have to be for reasons outside of the person's control, such as periods of proven illness or registered unemployment, or periods...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The back to work scheme was introduced to assist long term unemployed people, lone parents, and sickness related welfare recipients to return to active employment either by taking up employment or becoming self-employed. It is designed to support people who would not otherwise be able to return to the workforce for financial reasons. There are two strands to the scheme, the back to work...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: An unemployed person may qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit or Jobseeker's Allowance. Jobseeker's Benefit is based on a person's social insurance record Jobseeker's Allowance is based on weekly means. A fundamental qualifying condition for Jobseeker's Benefit is that an individual must be available for full time work. However, a person who engages in voluntary work within the State may continue...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 68 and 173 together. There are no plans to review means testing arrangements. Any further improvements to the means testing arrangements for social welfare schemes generally would have to be considered in a Budgetary context and having regard to available resources.

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I have no plans to introduce a system to refund the cost of taxis under the free travel scheme. The free travel scheme provides pass holders with free travel on the main public and private transport services. These include road, rail and ferry services provided by companies such as Bus Átha Cliath, Bus Éireann and Iarnród Éireann, as well as LUAS and services provided by over 80 private...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 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. With over 31,000 people in receipt of rent supplement for 18 months or more, the rent supplement scheme has to be seen in the context of overall housing policy, particularly in the case of long-term claimants. In...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 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 value of rent supplement payments made to tenants whose landlords live outside the state represents no more than 1.5% of total expenditure on rent supplement in 2008. The value of rent supplement payments...

Written Answers — Civil Registration: Civil Registration (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: This issue was the subject of a High Court judgement concerning the rights of a person, who has undergone gender reassignment surgery, to recognition of her acquired gender. On foot of a High Court judgement, delivered on 19 October 2007, the judge made a declaration, pursuant to Section 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003, that Sections 25, 63 and 64 of the Civil...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 160 and 161 together. The person concerned has insufficient contributions paid to qualify for a contribution based payment at this time. The person concerned applied for jobseeker's allowance on 7 November 2008. On receipt of all the necessary documentation and information her claim was disallowed as she failed to satisfy the habitual residence condition...

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: In May 2008 an additional 31 staff were assigned to local offices to deal with the increased volume of claims all of these staff are in place. Following on from this a further staffing review was undertaken in October and an additional 115 were allocated. By late February 83 of these staff were in place and start dates have been agreed for a further 12 in early March. In addition to this a...

Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (5 Mar 2009)

Mary Hanafin: The back to work scheme was introduced to assist long term unemployed people, lone parents, and sickness related welfare recipients to return to active employment either by taking up employment or becoming self-employed. It is designed to support people who would not otherwise be able to return to the workforce for financial reasons. There are two strands to the scheme, the back to work...