Results 9,941-9,960 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The bulk of social welfare payments go to our pensioners and to families for payments like child benefit payment. I imagine Deputy Ó Snodaigh goes to the post office to collect his child benefit but, increasingly, many families, individuals and pensioners already have a bank account and they opt to use their bank account. Is Deputy Ó Snodaigh suggesting that we should force people...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: I hope Deputy Ó Snodaigh is not suggesting that 600,000 families should queue at a post office to get their child benefit. What we want is to give people a choice.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: We want to give people the choice of using a bank account, if they have one. The main business that the post office gets from us at the moment comprises two elements. One is the fact that we require anyone who is receiving jobseeker's payments to collect their money in person at the post office. That is a major element of the business of the post office and accounts for over 20 million...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments Administration (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: As I have said, I have asked for the forms to be reassessed. These forms are reviewed, designed and updated all the time, and I have asked for that to be done. There is a wider point. We should move to a standard bank account for people who currently do not have a bank account. There are so many transactions nowadays in society - not necessarily to do with social welfare, it applies in...

Other Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: In recent weeks I have met representatives from the non-governmental organisations in the housing sector and lone-parent representative groups. As I said to colleagues earlier, I am looking at all the social welfare payments in the context of the budget. Last year for lone parents and all parents I was happy to be able to increase child benefit and bring in the back to work family dividend...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: I believe I am quoting from the same set of statistics to which the Deputy is referring-----

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The figures show that for lone parents who are in work, the consistent poverty rates are much lower than for lone parents not in work, at 10%. The impact of social transfers in Ireland is significant. Furthermore, in the last budget I increased child benefit, introduced the back to work family dividend and reintroduced the family Christmas bonus, which was very strongly welcomed by lone...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Overpayments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: A social welfare overpayment arises where a person has been in receipt of money to which he or she was not entitled. In such cases, the person concerned has a liability to repay the money. When deductions are being implemented from ongoing social welfare entitlements, the person is notified in writing of the proposed amount to be deducted and provided with the opportunity to detail any...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Overpayments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The majority of people who receive payments or income support from the Department of Social Protection get exactly what they are entitled to - no more and no less. However, in terms of the social contract, any level of overpayment, particularly one which arises from a conscious mis-statement of circumstances or fraud undermines the basic social welfare contract in that people at work who are...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Overpayments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: I introduced legislation in 2012 that allows a deduction of up to 15% of the weekly personal rate payable to a customer who has made an error or committed fraud. That means that if a person's basic rate is €188, up to 15% of that can be deducted. This does not affect payments issuing to the rest of the household or payments like child benefit. We can recover up to 15%, giving a...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Overpayments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: -----in terms of the repayment arrangements being made.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: Employment Support Services (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: Yes. The key factor is that people should be able to engage voluntarily in all the services the Department offers. We have rolled all of it out on a consistent basis. I am very ambitious to see much more take-up of the opportunities. In practice, if people are interested in the Youth Guarantee, the staff will go out of their way to include them. As the Deputy knows, the Youth Guarantee...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The facts speak for themselves. A person with one child who works 19 hours per week at the minimum wage will receive approximately €165 in wages and another €230 per week from my Department between family income supplement and the back to work family dividend. This will bring the person’s income up to €400 compared to a lone parent with one child who will receive...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: It is the question I received.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: Approximately 5,000 lone parents are in receipt of rent supplement. Where these individuals are in employment and they are transitioning from the one-parent family payment to another social welfare payment, most will opt for the seven-year transition about which I spoke to Deputy O'Dea, in order to take into account the difficulties and responsibilities that lone parents have. The...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: We have increased the spending on FIS, which goes to all families. We must be careful not to discriminate against families in a relationship, either a marriage or a partnership. We want all children and families treated in the same way with the same possibility for prosperity and financial independence. As I said to Deputy O'Dea, in the era to which Deputy Boyd Barrett refers, lone parents...

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: As the Deputy acknowledged previously, I introduced a seven year transition from lone parents allowance to jobseeker's allowance in a context where we as a country have a job to do. I will remind the Deputy how much his Government spent on lone parents compared to how much this Government spends.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: In 2004, at the height of the economic boom, lone parents were 4.5 times more at risk of consistent poverty than the population as a whole.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: In 2015, lone parents are 2.5 times more at risk of consistent poverty than the rest of the population. That is not as good as I would prefer. I would like to see the difference eliminated over time.

Ceisteanna - Questions - Priority Questions: One-Parent Family Payment Eligibility (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: During Fianna Fáil's squander and spend days, notwithstanding the money being spent, a lone parent was 4.5 times more at risk of poverty.