Results 4,721-4,740 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (24 Oct 2023)

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 in that office on 31...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: One of the criteria for widow(er)'s & surviving civil partner's contributory pension, is that the applicant must be the legal spouse, or civil partner, of the deceased. For marriages that took place outside Ireland, we require the original civil marriage certificate, that shows the civil status of the parties to the marriage. The person concerned submitted a photocopy of a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (24 Oct 2023)

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 €412 million in 2023. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. Qualifying payments for Fuel Allowance are those payments that are considered long term payments and an applicant must...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Disability Allowance is structured to support recipients to avail of work opportunities, be that self-employment or insurable employment. When an individual commences employment, they can avail of an income disregard of €165 per week. In addition, a 50% taper on earnings between €165 and €375 is currently applied. Budget 2023 was the third successive budget that the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Household Benefits Package comprises the electricity or gas allowance, and the free television licence. My Department will spend approximately €285 million this year on the Household Benefits Package. Approximately 517,000 households are in receipt of the Household Benefits package. People over the age of 70 receive the Household Benefits package, with one package provided...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 357, 358 and 360 together. The School Meals Programme provides funding towards the provision of food services to some 1,700 schools and organisations benefitting 300,000 children. The objective of the programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Legal Cases (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Among other things, the Attorney General's report of 7 February considers the Disabled Persons Maintenance Allowance and the historical question of the legal authority to withhold payment of the allowance to persons in full-time residential care funded or part-funded by the State and litigation relating to non-payment of the allowance. The Attorney General confirms that there was no positive...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Government acknowledges the important role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the Programme for Government and the National Carers’ Strategy. The key role of my Department is to provide income supports where an income need may arise due to unemployment, illness/disability and caring...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (24 Oct 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. Child Benefit for the person concerned was reviewed in October 2011. Child Benefit payment for a child was disallowed for the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: My Department provides a wide range of supports for jobseekers and existing employees with disabilities as well as specific financial incentives for private sector employers to encourage them to recruit and retain jobseekers with disabilities. These supports include the Reasonable Accommodation Fund, the Disability Awareness Support Scheme and the Wage Subsidy Scheme. The Reasonable...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The HSE currently recommends that when someone tests positive for Covid-19 that they stay at home for 5 days and avoid contact with other people, especially people at higher risk from Covid-19. Since 1 January 2023, employees have a right to 3 days sick pay a year under the statutory sick leave scheme. Under that scheme, sick pay may be paid by an employer at 70% of a person’s...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Oct 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. The extension of Child Benefit to 18-year-olds in full-time education was one of my key priorities as part of Budget...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (24 Oct 2023)

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. I confirm that my Department received an application for DA from the person concerned...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The person concerned reached pension age on 19 March 2023. The rate awarded for State Pension (contributory) is based on a person's insurable record. According to the records of my Department, the person concerned has a total of 1,138 contributions from their date of entry into insurable employment to the end of 2022, the tax year prior to their 66th birthday. This equates to a yearly...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Commissions of Investigation (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: There is only one tribunal under the aegis of my Department The Social Welfare Tribunal is a statutory body set up in 1982 to deal with cases where entitlement to Jobseeker's Benefit or Allowance are refused due to an involvement in a trade dispute. The last sitting of the Social Welfare Tribunal was in October 2014. No applications for adjudication have been made to the Tribunal since...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: In September 2022, I announced a series of landmark reforms to the State Pension system. The measures are in response to the Pensions Commission’s recommendations and represent the biggest ever structural reform of the Irish State Pension system. One of the measures announced is the introduction of flexibility to the State Pension (Contributory), allowing a person to defer access to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (24 Oct 2023)

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 €412 million in 2023. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. Only one allowance is paid per household. By the end of the 2022/23 Fuel Allowance season, the total number of households...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (24 Oct 2023)

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 in that office on 3...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Treatment Benefit Scheme provides dental, optical and aural services to insured workers, the self-employed, retired people and their dependant spouse/partner who have the required number of social insurance (PRSI) contributions. The scheme is demand-led. €162 million has been provided for the scheme in 2024, an increase of over 25% on the 2023 Estimate. Should a review of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Bodies (24 Oct 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The statutory bodies operating under the aegis of my Department are the Citizens Information Board, the Pensions Authority, the Pensions Council and the Social Welfare Tribunal. Details in relation to each of these bodies is outlined below: Citizens Information Board The Citizens Information Board (CIB) is the national agency responsible for supporting the provision of information, advice...