Results 5,421-5,440 of 20,682 for speaker:Mary Hanafin
- Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (1 Oct 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Under the current decentralisation programme, the Department's Head Quarters, Social Welfare Appeals Office, Information and Communications Technology Division are designated to relocate to Drogheda. In addition, the Citizens Information Board is also scheduled to relocate to Drogheda. According to figures received from the Central Application Facility (CAF), through which all applications...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The person concerned applied for illness benefit which is a payment for insured people who cannot work due to illness. To qualify for this benefit a person must satisfy the PRSI contribution conditions governing the scheme and be under age 66. The person concerned has 15 PRSI contributions recorded between 2005 and 2007. And, this does not satisfy the conditions for this benefit. If he has...
- Written Answers — Social Insurance: Social Insurance (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Pay related social insurance (PRSI) receipts from both employers and employees form the main part of the income of the Social Insurance Fund (SIF). The fund provides insured contributors with both long-term pension benefits and short-term benefits such as jobseeker and illness payments. The receipts forecast from PRSI for 2008 is â¬8,249 million. The receipts from PRSI for each year from...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: I understand that the Deputy is referring to the capital assessment arrangements for Disability Allowance. For the purposes of Disability Allowance, capital is assessed as follows: Amount of Capital Weekly Means Assessed Up to â¬50,000 Nil â¬50,000 â â¬60,000 â¬1 per each â¬1,000 â¬60,000 â â¬70,000 â¬2 per each â¬1,000 Over â¬70,000 â¬4 per each â¬1,000 This means that...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Supporting and recognising carers in our society is, and has been, a priority of the Government since 1997. Over that period, weekly payment rates to carers have greatly increased, qualifying conditions for carer's allowance have significantly eased, coverage of the scheme has been extended and new schemes such as carer's benefit and the respite care grant have been introduced and extended....
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 444 and 459 together. Workers are insured under the Social Welfare Acts as either employed or self-employed contributors. All workers, both employed and self-employed, are obliged to pay PRSI contributions as a percentage of their personal reckonable income. The range of benefits and pensions to which different groups of workers may establish entitlement...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The person concerned has made an application for payment of living alone allowance and fuel allowance. To qualify for living alone allowance a person must be living alone, satisfy age criteria and be in receipt of certain social welfare payments from the Department of Social and Family Affairs, of which Disability allowance is one such payment. The person concerned applied for Disability...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The back to education allowance is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications, thereby enhancing their prospects of returning to the work force. The objective of the scheme is to assist people at risk of becoming dependent on the social welfare system on a long term...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Code: Social Welfare Code (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The free travel scheme permits eligible customers and their spouses/partners to travel for free on most CIE public transport services and the public transport services offered by some ninety private operators in various parts of the country. Free travel is also available on cross border journeys between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In addition, customers aged 66 years and...
- Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Civil service posts at the levels of Assistant Secretary and Deputy Secretary are covered by a scheme of performance related awards. Recommendations in relation to awards are made by the Secretary General of each department and the operation of the scheme is overseen by the Committee for Performance Awards. The funding for awards is based on 10% of the payroll for the posts covered by the...
- Written Answers — Decentralisation Programme: Decentralisation Programme (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Under the Government's current decentralisation programme for the civil and public service, some 1,200 posts comprising the Department's headquarter sections and the Social Welfare Appeals Office are relocating to 6 locations â Sligo, Carrick-on-Shannon, Donegal Town, Buncrana, Carrickmacross and Drogheda. In addition, the Combat Poverty Agency (CPA) and Citizens Information Board (CIB) are...
- Written Answers — Compulsory Purchase Orders: Compulsory Purchase Orders (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: None of the agencies under the aegis of the Department have the power to issue compulsory purchase orders.
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: I propose to take Questions Nos. 451 to 456, inclusive, together. The Department is committed to providing a quality customer service to all its customers. This includes ensuring that applications are processed and that decisions on entitlement are issued as expeditiously as possible having regard to the eligibility conditions which apply. These conditions vary between the two jobseeker...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The deceased person in this case was assessed with an overpayment of â¬9,855.56 in respect of the period 19/02/1999 to 24/10/2002 and had been repaying this amount by way of weekly deductions of â¬12.50 from his pension. At the date of death he had repaid â¬3,312.50 leaving an outstanding balance of â¬6,543.00 In circumstances where a person dies leaving an outstanding overpayment it is...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, an exceptional needs payment (ENP) may be made to help meet an essential, once-off cost which the applicant is unable to meet out of his/her own resources. There is no automatic entitlement to this payment. Each application is...
- Written Answers — Family Support Services: Family Support Services (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: Training for carers is an important issue both in terms of training to assist with the provision of care and training to assist carers to return to employment when their caring has ceased. This issue is being examined in the context of the development of the National Carers Strategy.
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The person concerned does not satisfy the statutory qualifying contributions conditions for receipt of Illness Benefit or Jobseeker's Benefit. He made an application for Jobseeker's Allowance on 21st April 2008. His application was refused by a Deciding Officer on the grounds that he does not hold a valid work permit and therefore, is not available for full-time employment. I am advised by...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Benefits: Social Welfare Benefits (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes mortgage interest supplement, is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive. A mortgage interest supplement provides short-term income support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of...
- Written Answers — Social Welfare Appeals: Social Welfare Appeals (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The Social Welfare Appeals Office operates independently of the Department in determining appeals on social welfare entitlements. Of the 13,845 appeals finalised by that Office in 2007, 6,531 (or 47.1%) had a favourable outcome. The corresponding statistics for 2008 to the end of August were 9,830 appeals finalised of which 4,695 (or 47.7%) had a favourable outcome. Decisions on statutory...
- Written Answers — Data Protection: Data Protection (30 Sep 2008)
Mary Hanafin: The Department has a comprehensive written Portable Computing Device Security Policy, which is published on its in-house intranet site. Staff are advised, inter alia, that sensitive Department data should not be stored on portable computing devices or portable storage media. However, in the event that there is no alternative to local storage, all sensitive Department data stored on portable...