Results 8,201-8,220 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Carer's Allowance 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. Means are any income belonging to the carer and their spouse, civil partner, or cohabitant, property (except their own...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

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. Once CA claims are in payment, the Department periodically reviews them to ensure that there is continued entitlement....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

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 can confirm my Department has not received an application for DA for the person...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The purpose of the Exceptional Needs Payment (ENP) is to assist people with essential, once-off, exceptional expenditure, which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. ENPs are demand led and payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the scheme taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Fuel Allowance is a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. The payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) is paid from late September to April. The Fuel Allowance application for the person concerned was awarded from 23 September 2022. The person concerned was notified in writing on the 24 November 2022. I hope this clarifies the position...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned was registered on 5 August 2022 and in accordance with the statutory...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Correspondence (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: A substantive reply to the correspondence in question in question will have issued from my office by post on 22 November 2022. I trust that this clarifies the matter.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I was pleased to announce on Budget Day that a 100% Christmas Bonus will be paid this year benefitting 1.3 million people in receipt of long-term social welfare payments. The Bonus will be paid during the week beginning the 5th of December and will cost approximately €294 million. The Bonus includes payments to pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, lone parents and the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all the evidence, disallowed the disability allowance appeal of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I can confirm that my department received an application for disability allowance (DA) from this person on 02 November 2022. Their application, based upon all the evidence submitted, was refused on medical grounds as it was not found that they were substantially restricted in taking up employment. The person concerned was notified in writing of this decision on 25 November 2022 and was also...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. The Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal on behalf of the person concerned was registered in that office on 9 November 2022. It is a statutory...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (29 Nov 2022)

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 €366 million in 2022. The purpose of this payment is to assist these households with their energy costs. The criteria for Fuel Allowance are framed in order to direct the limited resources available to my Department in as targeted...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Fuel Allowance is a contribution towards the energy costs of a household. The payment of €33 per week for 28 weeks (a total of €924 each year) is paid from late September to April. One of the conditions for receipt of the fuel allowance is that a person must be in receipt of a qualifying payment and live alone or only with a dependent spouse, civil partner, or...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: As part of Budget 2023, the Social Protection budget has been designed to assist people with cost-of-living increases through a mix of once off lump sum payments, increases to weekly payment rates and, for example, an expansion of the Fuel Allowance scheme. The measures introduced included the provision of a one-off €500 Cost-of-Living payment, which was paid in mid-November to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 462 and 463 together. Carer’s Allowance is a payment to people on low incomes who are caring full-time for a person who needs support because of age, disability or illness (including mental illness). The person being cared for must require full-time care and attention. At the end of October 2022, there were 91,892 recipients of Carer's Allowance. Of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that there are currently 7,479 appeals at various stages of the appeals process. Under Article 13 of the Social Welfare...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Jobseeker’s Allowance, formerly known as Unemployment Assistance, is a means-tested income support for people who are unemployed. In the week ending 20 November, 2022, there were 114,650 Jobseeker’s Allowance recipients. Of these, 41.5 per cent (47,539) are long-term unemployed (one year or more), while 58.5 percent (67,111) are considered short-term recipients. It should be...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, my Department can make additional needs payments to help meet expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income. This is an overarching term, introduced into our statistical reporting in 2022, used to refer to exceptional and urgent needs payments, and certain supplements to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. The time taken to process an appeal reflects a number of factors including that the appeals process is a quasi-judicial process with Appeals Officers being required to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (29 Nov 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Bereavement Grant, which was a once-off payment for funeral costs, was discontinued in January 2014. The number of bereavement grant claims in 2013 was 23,716 at a cost of €20.3 million. It is estimated that the cost of reintroducing the grant would be close to €30 million per annum and increasing annually. Any decision to reinstate the grant would have to be considered...