Results 9,561-9,580 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Cost of Living Issues (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We have community welfare offices in the 51 Intreo centres throughout the country. They talk to the people over the phone. They can meet them in the local branch office. They can even arrange to meet people in their own homes by appointment if that is what people need. We are also considering setting up a system where people can apply directly for additional needs payment online. As the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: This is a demand-led scheme. I can assure the Deputy that the people who qualify and submit their applications will get the funding. There is no doubt about that. With regard to the numbers who have claimed this year, it is some 22,000 people already. We would expect that to double. Last year in 2021 it was 51,395 applications. Up to the end of May this year 27,488 claims were awarded....

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The people who qualify for this payment are the applicants who have received maternity benefit, adoptive benefit, or paternity benefit for their child. They will automatically satisfy the PRSI contribution requirements to receive parent's benefit. A person must be paying PRSI to qualify. The payment is €250 per week. The question was asked whether single parents can get this...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Budget 2023 (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: 11 o’clock The Indecon cost of disability report identified that the additional cost of disability is a wider issue than income supports and crosses a number of areas of expenditure. These include housing, equipment, aids and appliances, care and assistance services, mobility, transport, communications, medicines, and additional living expenses. The cost of disability can be...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Budget 2023 (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: There is no recommendation to do this in the Indecon report. It states that the worst outcome for people with disabilities would be giving a little to everyone. That is not what we should do. We need to target this. We are looking at doing this better, with a tiered approach to disability payments. For example, a person with a profound disability who might never be able to work would get...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Budget 2023 (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is heading a cross-departmental committee and leading the whole-of-government response through the disability inclusion strategy steering group, which she starts. In fairness to her, she is pushing that work on. She is a strong advocate and is passionate about the issue of disability. My Department is looking at the recommendations relating to the...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Benefits (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 83 and 110 together. I thank the Deputy for raising this. The Parent's Leave and Benefit Act 2019 introduced two weeks of paid parent's leave for each parent to be taken in the first year after the birth or adoptive placement of a child. Following the commencement of the Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2021, an additional three weeks of...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disability Services (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My Department is working at present on a straw-man report as regards what this payment structure is like. The work is ongoing and very complex. The Deputy will appreciate it is also a very sensitive area. I hope we will have that report ready in the autumn. I will then be able to sit down with the various disability representative groups and the Minister of State and talk them through it...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Costs (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Any increase to capitation grants would be a matter for the Minister for Education. Free school transport will be a big boost for many families because it costs in the region of €500. That will be a big help to families who were facing that cost. It has been waived for this year so they will not have to worry. That will give them a bit of extra money that they can put towards the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Costs (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Over recent months, the Government has announced a package of €2.4 billion to help people meet the cost of living and the cost of fuel. I am the Minister for Social Protection and my priority is to assist those on low and fixed incomes and to keep people out of poverty. That is my number one priority. We have the working family payment. I understand that there are people who do not...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disability Services (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The issue of the cost of disability is broad and extends beyond the remit of the Department of Social Protection. This is why this important and much-needed research was carried out. The Cost of Disability in Ireland research report will now inform policy from a whole-of-government perspective. The Indecon report identified that additional costs of disability run across a number of areas...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Disability Services (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: This report on the cost of disability has implications right across Government and various Departments with regard to things such as access to services, healthcare, transport, mobility grants, the housing adaptation grants available through the local authorities and so on. There is a lot there. The Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, is leading on the whole-of-government response through...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. The additional needs payment is available to people if they have expenses they cannot pay from their weekly income. In response to the cost-of-living crisis, I have taken a number of steps to simplify the process of applying for this payment. These measures include making it clear that the payment is available to both social welfare recipients...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Deputy raised the issue of the online application and that is why we are working on doing that. My officials are seeing how we can put it online for some people. I am trying to make it as easy as possible for people to access this payment. I understand some people do not want to have to meet somebody so we have a central phone line. If somebody cannot go to an Intreo office, he or she...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I have done everything I can to make access to the community welfare officer as easy as possible. In terms of the Ukrainians who have come here, our social welfare staff have gone out and visited them. In terms of the numbers, between January and the end of May 2022, more than 27,800 additional needs payments were made, totalling almost €17 million. In the same period last year,...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Costs (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance scheme provides a once-off payment to eligible families to assist with the costs of clothing and footwear when children start or return to school each autumn. The scheme operates from June to September each year. This scheme recognises the pressures families with schoolgoing children are under at...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Policy responsibility for adult safeguarding falls under the remit of my colleague the Minister for Health.  Officials in my Department’s Safeguarding Unit liaise with the HSE’s Safeguarding Protection Team as necessary where concerns arise of financial abuse for social welfare customers or concerns about the their being taken advantage of financially.  My...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Registration of Deaths (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The obligation to register a death rests primarily with a family member of the deceased.  Deaths are currently required to be registered within three months of the day of death.   The General Register Office (GRO), which operates under the aegis of my Department, has initiated discussions across Government on modernising the way that deaths are registered.  This...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Indecon report found that there is not a single typical ‘cost of disability’, rather there is a spectrum from low additional costs to extremely high extra costs of disability, depending on the individual circumstances of the person concerned.    The additional costs of disability identified by Indecon run across a number of areas of expenditure...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (14 Jul 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Community Welfare Service delivers the supplementary welfare allowance scheme which is the safety net within the overall social welfare system.  This scheme helps eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependents.   Customers do not have to meet in person with an Officer to make a claim.  The application...