Results 5,101-5,120 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Television Licence Fee (21 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Household Benefits Package comprises of an Electricity or Gas Allowance, and a Free Television Licence.  The package is generally available to people living in the State aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of a social welfare payment or who satisfy a means test.  The package is also available to some people under the age of 66, who are in receipt...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (21 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The total estimated cost of providing three once-off €100 bonus payments in October and November 2023, and March 2024 (on the same basis as the Spring Cost of Living Bonus paid in April 2023) is €393m. The estimated costs per scheme are outlined in the table below. Scheme Cost €m (per bonus) Cost €m (total) State Pension...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (21 Sep 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 named customer was stopped in December 2021 due to the non-return of a residency review...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (21 Sep 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 . Eligibility for DA is conditional on satisfying the medical criteria, a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (21 Sep 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 . Eligibility for DA is conditional on satisfying the medical criteria, a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (21 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: State pension non-contributory is a means-tested payment for people aged 66 and over, habitually residing in the State, who do not qualify for a state pension contributory, or who only qualify for a reduced rate contributory pension based on their social insurance record. In order to satisfy the habitual residence condition, it first must be established that the person has an unconditional...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (21 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Fuel Allowance is a payment to help with the cost of heating a person’s home during the winter months.  A person may qualify for this payment if they are aged 70 years or older or if they are receiving a long-term social welfare payment and satisfy a means test. According to the records of my Department the entitlement of the person concerned to a Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA)...

Written Answers — Department of Rural and Community Development: Departmental Bodies (21 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The public bodies under the aegis of my Department are independent legal entities responsible for managing their own corporate affairs and staff matters in compliance with statutory obligations and the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies. The four public bodies under the aegis of my Department are listed in the table below, including Oireachtas contact details for each. ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (20 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The person in question has been subject to Class A PRSI since 10 September 1997 when their current employment commenced. A Deciding Officer in my Department’s Scope Section has determined that the individual is not entitled to the modified rate of PRSI for the following reasons. Firstly, in order for the modified rate of PRSI to continue on changing employments, an individual must...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (20 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The Government acknowledges the valuable 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 main income supports to carers provided by my department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (20 Sep 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 on the 17th July 2023. It...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Home Care Packages (20 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The person concerned reached pension age on 21 May 2023. An application form for State Pension (contributory) was received on 22 February 2023. Under current eligibility conditions, an individual must have 520 full-rate paid contributions in order to qualify for standard State pension (contributory). 520 full-rate contributions equate to 10 years of full-rate insurable employment....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Disability Services (20 Sep 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. This DA payment ceased in February 2023 when this individual informed my Department that he...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Gender Equality (20 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 608 and 609 together. The State Pension (Contributory) is a PRSI-based pension, financed by contributions made by current workers and their employers, and paid to pensioners, at a rate based upon their PRSI record when working. A person is required to have a minimum of 520 paid reckonable PRSI contributions in order to qualify for the State Pension...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (20 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The person concerned reached pension age on 13 December 2022. An application for State Pension (contributory) was received on 27 January 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 691 total reckonable contributions and credits from their date of entry into...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (20 Sep 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. One of the qualifying conditions for CA is that the means of the person concerned must be less than the statutory limit....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (20 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: The State Pension (Contributory) system currently gives significant recognition to those whose work history includes an extended period of time outside the paid workplace, often to raise families or in a full-time caring role. PRSI Credits, Homemaking Disregards and HomeCaring Periods recognise caring periods of up to 20 years outside of paid employment in the calculation of a payment rate....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (20 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: One of the landmark reforms to the State Pension system that I announced last September is a ten-year phased transition to the Total Contributions Approach and the abolition of the Yearly Average method, as recommended by the independent Pensions Commission following its in-depth analysis of the State pension system. During a transition period, individual pension rates will be based on the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud (20 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: Overpayments of social welfare entitlements can occur where a person provides false or misleading information in their application or through error on the part of either the claimant or the Department. Persons who have been overpaid social welfare have a liability to refund the overpayment as they have been in receipt of a payment to which they were not entitled. In 2022 the total value of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Disability Services (20 Sep 2023)

Heather Humphreys: There is a range of supports provided by the Community Welfare Service under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme. These supports can consist of a basic weekly payment, a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of certain expenses, as well as single Additional Needs Payments (ANPs). The basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) provides immediate assistance for those in...