Results 9,981-10,000 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: In certain circumstances it is possible for a person to be engaged in insurable employment or self-employment and still satisfy the unemployment condition. One of these circumstances is where the person has what is defined as ‘subsidiary employment’. The provisions for subsidiary employment are set out in social welfare regulations. Subsidiary employments are employments that...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: Despite considerable investment, the one-parent family payment scheme has not succeeded in preventing lone parents from being significantly more at risk of consistent poverty than the population as a whole. The reforms seek to address the long-term social welfare dependency and poverty experienced by many lone parents by providing them with improved access to the Department’s range of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: Expenditure on the One Parent Family Payment (OFP) scheme is estimated to be €607 million in 2015 with almost 70,000 recipients. However, despite considerable investment, the scheme has not succeeded in preventing lone parents from being significantly more at risk of consistent poverty than the population as a whole. In 2004, at the height of the economic boom, lone parents were...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Child Care Services Provision (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: Child care policy, including the delivery and/or expansion of child care services, is the responsibility of the Department of Children and Youth Affairs (D/CYA). The reforms to the one-parent family payment have highlighted the need for child care supports to be available for lone parents who make the transition into employment. My Department in conjunction with the D/CYA, introduced the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The 2012 Report on Pension Charges undertaken by my Department, working with the Central Bank and the Pensions Authority, was the first comprehensive Government report on this subject. Since publication, a range of measures have been taken to deliver on the report’s recommendations and work in this regard continues. For example, in line with the recommendation that the implementation...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: My Department is actively engaged in supporting job seekers of working age to avail of opportunities to get back to work. The ESRI Report “Making Work Pay More: Recent Initiatives” published this week, finds that the majority of jobseekers have a strong financial incentive to take up employment. The analysis shows that almost 80% of jobseekers would see their income increase...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Water Conservation Grant (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The administration and payment of this grant is a significant project for the Department and requires the development and implementation of ICT systems, ICT infrastructure and various customer support and communications services. The start-up costs to develop and set up the ICT solutions, and put in place comprehensive customer support services, will be incurred in 2015. It is estimated, on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: National Carers Strategy (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The government recognises the significant contribution that carers make to society and provide a range of income supports to assist with the financial burden of caring. These include carer's allowance, carer's benefit, domiciliary care allowance and respite care grant. In excess of €822 million is provided for these payments in 2015. In relation to the scorecard report from the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Respite Care Grant Expenditure (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The estimated expenditure on carers in 2015 is over €822 million: €564 million on Carer’s Allowance, €21 million on Carer’s Benefit, €124 million on the Respite Care Grant and €113 million on Domiciliary Care Allowance. The payment of the Respite Care Grant (RCG) for 2015 commenced this June, with automatic payments issuing to over 70,000...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: As part of the application process for a jobseeker’s payment, it will be determined whether the person is currently fully unemployed, or is continuing to engage in employment, whether casually or in a self-employed capacity. Information on record and provided by the applicant will determine the nature and rate of payment, as well as his/her status prior to becoming and while...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Farm Assist Scheme Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The farm assist scheme provides support for farmers on low incomes and is similar to jobseeker’s allowance. Farm assist recipients retain the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme such as retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes. The 2015 Revised Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure of almost €89 million on the farm...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: I want to emphasise that the forms provided by the department, to enable customers apply for social welfare entitlements, are continuously reviewed to ensure that they are amenable and relevant to all customers. In this context the department considers that its forms should reflect the choices being made by new customers on what payment channel they opt for. The fact is that more and more...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Departmental Functions (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: Client data is transferred from the Department of Social Protection (DSP) to the Department of Education and Skills (DES) in order to meet with EU regulations governing the programmes under the European Globalisation Fund (EGF), for which DES is the Management Authority. Client data is also shared with DES’s Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) for the purposes of determining...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The reforms to the one-parent family payment (OFP) saw approximately 10,000 customers transitioning from OFP to a range of alternative income support payments on 4 July, 2013, and on 3 July, 2014. However, it is not possible to give definitive figures on the number of customers who experienced a change in income on foot of transitioning from the OFP scheme as this depends on individual...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Law Cases (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The issue of maintenance payments is first and foremost a private matter for the persons concerned, and if they cannot resolve the problem, for the courts through family law provisions. The liability to maintain family provisions, contained in social welfare legislation, are separate to family law legislation. In every case where a one parent family payment (OFP) is awarded, the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: One-Parent Family Payments (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: Approximately 30,000 lone parents are scheduled to transition from the one-parent family payment (OFP) scheme on 2 July, 2015. These individuals were invited to attend information sessions in their local Intreo offices where they were advised of the different options available to them when they transition from the OFP scheme. At these information sessions staff of the Department informed lone...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Fund Fees (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The 2012 Report on Pension Charges undertaken by my Department, working with the Central Bank and the Pensions Authority, was the first comprehensive Government report on this subject. The report culminated in recommendations which involve measures to introduce clarity and consistency across the various pension products, increase consumer understanding and provide a better result for the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pensions Levy (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The Minister for Finance stated previously in the House that an additional levy on pension funds was introduced for 2014 and 2015 to help fund the Jobs Initiative and to make provision for potential State liabilities emerging from pre-existing or future pension fund difficulties, and that the yield from the additional levy in these years forms part of general tax revenue of the Central Fund...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Insurance Rates (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: The estimated revenue that would be raised for the Social Insurance Fund by introducing a new Class A employers’ rate of Pay Related Social Insurance of 15.75% on the portion of salary paid in excess of €100,000 per annum would be €267.4 million.

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Information and Communications Technology (24 Jun 2015)

Joan Burton: My Department employs technology solutions to provide protection against possible threats that may be targeted at the Department through the use of email. The Department’s email security gateway examines email for security threats. If a security threat is found in an email, the email is quarantined and then auto-deleted after a set period of time. Email containing a virus is...