Results 11,261-11,280 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Fuel allowance is paid to social welfare recipients such as pensioners, people with disabilities, lone parents and the long-term unemployed in recognition of their long-term financial dependence on their social welfare payment for all or most of their income. The reason jobseeker's benefit, illness benefit, enhanced illness benefit and maternity benefit are not qualifying payments for fuel...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I understand the issue with regard to people on the disability payment. I, too, have a constituent who has been out sick with a bad back for the past two to three months. She asked me if she could get the fuel allowance and I had to explain to her that she could not because she was outside the criteria. The payment is framed in this way in order to direct the limited resources available to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Fuel allowance is paid to social welfare recipients such as pensioners, people with disabilities, lone parents and the long-term unemployed in recognition of the fact that they have a long-term financial dependence on a social welfare payment for all or most of their income.  It is not paid to people in receipt of illness benefit who have an...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: As I said, in this year's budget I increased the means threshold by €20 to €120 above the appropriate contributory State pension. That has benefited more people. More than 400,000 families benefit from the fuel allowance. There will always be people who, unfortunately, fall each side of the criteria. Those in need can seek assistance from their local community welfare...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We have increased the fuel allowance. Last year, the fuel allowance was €784. This year, it is €1,049. When one adds to that the €200 energy credit, there has been a 60% increase in the fuel allowance in comparison with last year. I understand that things are not easy for people. The Government is doing everything it can to try to assist, but it cannot cover all of...

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions: Social Welfare Schemes (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The working family payment scheme is a demand-led scheme and is not budget capped. Based on current and projected claim volumes, my Department estimates expenditure of €348.6 million for the scheme in 2022. In budget 2022, I provided for an increase in €10 per week in the working family payment income thresholds for all families....

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Given that we have the exceptional needs payment as well as the urgent needs payment, we should be calling this just the needs payment. It does not matter how much someone works - if he or she has an urgent need, he or she can approach a community welfare officer and ask for assistance. The rule on 30 hours working is not stopping people from getting support. There are two strands -...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Meals Programme (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to 1,506 schools and organisations, benefiting 230,000 children. The objective of the programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children who are unable, due to lack of good-quality food, to take full advantage of the education provided to them. The programme is an...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Meals Programme (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I am committed to the school meals programme, so much so that we have increased the hot school meals programme from a pilot of 37 schools to almost 300. This is a good thing. During the 2020-21 academic year, 804 DEIS schools participated in the school meals programme, benefiting 148,594 children. Those 804 schools represented 91% of the 887 DEIS schools in the country. The Deputy...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: School Meals Programme (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: We are increasing it, but instead of increasing the numbers, I want to see there being more hot school meals. They are a little more expensive, but a hot school meal for a child in the middle of the day is worth its weight in gold. We all know from packing school lunch boxes with cold meals that children take a bite of them but are then away and gone. Having spoken with teachers and...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy. There is one thing none of us want to see and that is exploitation. I did not get a chance to answer on the EU social security co-ordination regulations the Deputy mentioned. Ukraine is not covered by those, nor does Ireland have a bilateral agreement with it on social security. However, social security contributions are not required to access social assistance...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy. I know many people who pick mushrooms and people who own the businesses and in fairness to the mushroom farmers of Monaghan, I have not come across any cases where people have been exploited.

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: No------

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I will continue. I said I have not come across a case. That is not to say it is not happening but I have not come across a case. There are opportunities for people to work in many different sectors when they come here. I have people from the IT sector and the engineering sector contacting me to say they will have work for many of the migrants who are coming. First of all, we need to...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this. To provide support for those facing challenges with the cost of living, the Government brought in a package of tax and social welfare measures worth over €1 billion last October in budget 2022. This was the largest social welfare package in 14 years. Last month, the Government agreed a further package of €505 million, including the...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy. We have been promoting both the exceptional needs payment and the urgent needs payment as part of the supplementary welfare allowance on our social media. I have asked my officials to ensure people are aware of that. The one thing we do not want it is for people to be in difficulty and not realise they can access these payments. The Department of the Social Protection...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My understanding is that when a child reaches seven years, the jobseeker's transition payment kicks into effect. Then you no longer have that liability to the State. Therefore the parent who is not living with the child and whose income has been taken as means, in that they should be supporting the child, that the liability ceases to the State at that point. Until the child reaches the age...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: There are two separate issues here, namely, that of the liable relatives and of maintenance. They are completely separate. The purpose of the liable relative provision is to ensure that the parent who is not looking after the children pays the State towards the cost of the one-parent family payment. It is not an additional income stream for the one-parent allowance recipient. We did...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Eligibility (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this important issue. On 4 March 2022, the Council of the European Union unanimously adopted the implementing decision regarding the temporary protection directive, due to the mass influx of persons fleeing Ukraine as a consequence of the war. This means that people arriving from Ukraine have been granted the status to avail of income supports from my...

Ceisteanna ar Sonraíodh Uain Dóibh - Priority Questions: Social Welfare Payments (22 Mar 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. There is a legal responsibility on parents, whether married or unmarried, to maintain dependent children in accordance with their means. The legislation on liable relatives is not to be confused or conflated with the payment of maintenance. Under the liable relative provisions, the Department is not arranging maintenance but ensuring, where...