Results 8,601-8,620 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits Data (1 Oct 2015)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 42 to 44, inclusive, and 55 together. The cost in 2016 of a 1%, 2% and €5 per week increase in the weekly rate of all pension-age payments (including proportionate increases for qualified adults, where applicable) is €71 million, €141.1 million and €154.6 million respectively. The cost in 2016 of a €5 increase in the monthly...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (1 Oct 2015)

Joan Burton: The full-year cost, in 2016, of increasing the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme maximum child age threshold from seven years to twelve years would be approximately €23.5 million. It should be noted that this figure includes a reduction in expenditure on the back to work family dividend (BTWFD) scheme. This arises as lone parents who currently are in receipt of this payment...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (1 Oct 2015)

Joan Burton: State pension (contributory) is based on the PRSI contributions paid or credited by the person over their working life, and the level of entitlement depends on their yearly average number of contributions. The homemaker’s scheme was introduced in 1994 to make qualification for State pension contributory (SPC) easier for those who take time out of the workforce for caring duties....

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Education Allowance Eligibility (1 Oct 2015)

Joan Burton: In order to qualify for the Back to Education Allowance scheme (BTEA) while pursuing a third level course certain conditions must be fulfilled, including being in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment for 9 months(234 paid or credited days of unemployment). The person concerned submitted a BTEA application on 11 September 2015, at which point he was advised by email that as he had...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance (1 Oct 2015)

Joan Burton: The person concerned has been in receipt of a jobseeker's allowance payment from 21 May, 2012 to date. The person concerned will continue to receive the payment once he continues to meet the criteria for jobseeker's allowance.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (1 Oct 2015)

Joan Burton: The person concerned is in receipt of a widow’s contributory pension at the maximum rate payable to a person under age 66 years of age. She is also in receipt of a qualified child increase at the weekly rate of €29.80 and qualifies for a fuel allowance payment of €20.00 per week. Fuel allowance payments are issued from October to the following April to eligible...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Eligibility (1 Oct 2015)

Joan Burton: Carer's Allowance (CA) is a social assistance payment made to persons who are providing full-time care and attention to a relevant person/persons and whose income falls below certain limits. The department informs me that, to date, no application by the person concerned for CA has been received. Accordingly, I have arranged for an application form (CR1) to issue, which the person concerned...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Benefit (1 Oct 2015)

Joan Burton: The person concerned has advised her case officer that she has access to her own transport. The person concerned met with her case officer firstly on 21 July 2015 where all possible options including, job seeking and training courses were discussed and considered.The person concerned has chosen to participate on a part-time course in the Baldoyle Training Centre though she was offered other...

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: What age is she?

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: The Deputy should see whether she could apply for the non-contributory.

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: The marriage bar was done away with when Ireland joined the EEC when a range of measures around equality came into law in Ireland. Ireland has the homemaker's credit, which is quite generous and which I was involved in introducing in 1994. This particular lady is entitled to apply for a non-contributory pension. If one looks for an assessment of what would be her best way of maximising...

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: The issue here, as people are aware from other questions, is that the cost would be a very significant annual cost and we do not as yet have the resources as a country to be in a position to fund what it would cost.

Other Questions: Poverty Data (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Research shows that being at work reduces the poverty rate for lone parents by three quarters, or 75%, compared to people who do not work. A recent study for the Department shows that lone parent families are particularly vulnerable to living in jobless households. A key way to tackle poverty then is to get parents back to work. The ongoing one-parent family payment reforms and the new...

Other Questions: Poverty Data (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: Poverty is something we must fight against and work to eliminate, which is what the Government and I are doing. The critical way to help people out of poverty is to get them into employment and to get good jobs. This is why we will be raising the minimum wage. I know it does not affect a huge number of people but it affects about 75,000 people in work. I hope that we will also look in the...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: As the Deputy said, approximately 25,500 lone parents transitioned from the one-parent family payment scheme on 2 July 2015. Approximately 13,600 of lone parents moved to the jobseeker’s transitional payment. In fact, as the Deputy knows, they would have had no change in their income from the lone parent's allowance. However, once a parent's youngest child is seven years old, he or...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: As I have said on a number of occasions, we want to ensure in the forthcoming budget that out of the additional moneys we will be able to spend between €1.2 billion and €1.5 billion. We want to focus in particular on families with children, retired people and those on long-term social welfare payments. The amount of money we have to spend is significant, although it is not as...

Other Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: In fact, therefore, we anticipate that people working on low incomes will receive a considerable boost both through a wage increase and the back-to-work family dividend. That will then set them up to be much better off than they would be by simply living entirely on social welfare.

Other Questions: Pension Provisions (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: The marriage bar is a term used to describe a rule that existed in most of the public service and some private sector employments, whereby women were expected to leave their employment upon marriage. The bar was removed when Ireland joined the European Economic Community in 1973. Where such employees were in the public service, they paid a modified rate of PRSI. These contributions...

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: As I said, if the Deputy will give me the details of the case, we can check it. If the people go to their local office and explain the circumstances, we have the capacity to be flexible. I have to be very honest with the Deputy and clear on this. The requirement to be habitually resident in Ireland as part of the social welfare system was introduced as a qualifying condition for certain...

Other Questions: State Pensions Payments (30 Sep 2015)

Joan Burton: We have much flexibility and I advise the Deputy to pass the details of the case to my office and to bear in mind that the State is constantly sued or threatened with legal proceedings if we do not strictly enforce habitual resident conditions. There have been recent cases of people who had spent some time in Ireland but were caring for people in another part of the EU claiming the carer's...