Results 11,981-12,000 of 27,613 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My Department provides a range of schemes to assist low-income households with energy costs. These include regular payments like fuel allowance and discretionary payments made under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme. An Electricity or Gas allowance is available under the Household Benefits scheme at an estimated cost in 2022 of €203 million. This will benefit over 476,000...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Schemes (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My Department provides a wide range of income and employment supports which have been designed to assist both jobseekers and existing employees with disabilities, and employers seeking to hire a person or support an existing employee with a disability. Both Disability Allowance and Blind Pension are structured to support recipients to avail of opportunities to pursue their own employment...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Insurance (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Subject to the standard qualifying conditions for State Pension (Contributory) also being satisfied, the State pension system already provides significant recognition to those whose work history includes an extended period of time outside the paid workplace, often to raise families or in a full-time caring role. This is provided through the award of credits and/or the application of the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 302, 313 and 314 together. The free travel scheme was introduced in 1967 to promote social inclusion and prevent the isolation of elderly and disabled people by taking advantage of free space on public transport services. The free travel scheme is available to all persons aged over 66 and those under age 66 on certain qualified payments, who are living...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Youth Unemployment (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: As the Deputy will be aware, young people in the labour market (those under 25 years of age) are particularly affected by labour market disruptions. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 264,000 young people were in work and the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate for 2019 averaged approximately 12.5 percent. However, following the onset of the pandemic, the CSO’s ‘COVID-19...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence, decided to allow the appeal of the person concerned by way of a summary decision. The person concerned was notified of the Appeals Officer’s decision on 12 January 2022. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Social welfare legislation provides that all income and capital belonging to an applicant (and his or her spouse/partner, where applicable) is assessable for means testing purposes for social assistance schemes. While some elements of the means testing arrangements are common to all schemes, there are some elements which vary from scheme to scheme. The assessment of savings and other...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My Department provides a comprehensive package of carers’ income supports including Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Over 135,000 carers benefit from regular income supports and combined spending on these payments to carers in 2022 is estimated to exceed €1.5 billion. The value of income transfers...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Appeals (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I am advised by the Social Welfare Appeals Office that an Appeals Officer, having fully considered all of the available evidence, has decided to allow the appeal of the person concerned by way of a summary decision. The person concerned was notified of the Appeals Officer’s decision on 26 January 2022. The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Employment Support Services (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: My Department is currently undertaking a competitive procurement of employment services over two phases. It follows extensive engagement with existing service partners and their representative bodies over the last number of years, including site visits to all current providers and including Kerry's local employment services. My Department hosted two information sessions for interested...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: The Arts and Culture Taskforce recommended the introduction of a pilot basic income scheme for artists. This was reflected in the National Economic Recovery Plan. Budget 2022 included an announcement of €25 million to pilot a new Basic Income Guarantee scheme for artists. My colleague the Minister for Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has lead...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care. I confirm that my Department received an application for CA in respect of two care recipients on 07 May 2020. It is a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Enhanced Illness Benefit was introduced in 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the Health (Preservation and Protection and other Emergency Measures in the Public Interest) Act 2020 (No. 1), the Government extended the Social Welfare Acts to provide for entitlement to Illness Benefit for persons who have been diagnosed with, or are a probable source of infection with Covid-19....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Carer's allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment made to a person who is habitually resident in the State and who is providing full-time care and attention to a child or an adult who has such a disability that as a result they require that level of care. The person concerned is in receipt of CA in respect of his care recipient since 19 March 2015 and currently receives CA...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 315 and 325 together. My Department understands the many pressures faced by customers and always seeks to ensure that claims are handled quickly and efficiently. I am pleased to report that claim processing is up to date, with processing targets met, or exceeded, on average for all the main scheme areas. Processing times vary across schemes, depending on the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Pension Provisions (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 316 and 317 together. The State Pension (Contributory) is a PRSI-based pension, financed by contributions made by current workers and their employers, and paid to pensioners, at a rate based upon their PRSI record when working. A person is required to have a minimum of 520 paid reckonable PRSI contributions in order to qualify for the State Pension...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 318 and 319 together. Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department can make a single Exceptional Needs Payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet out of their weekly income. An urgent needs payment (UNP) may be made to persons who may not normally qualify for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Policies (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: In February 2021, I introduced the "Benefit Payment for 65 year olds" in line with the Programme for Government commitment, to provide a benefit payment for people who are aged 65 and who are required to retire, or who chose to retire, without a requirement to sign on, engage in activation measures or be available for and genuinely seeking work. This new payment was designed specifically to...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: I propose to take Questions Nos. 321 and 322 together. Under current eligibility conditions, applicants must have 520 full-rate paid contributions in order to qualify for standard State pension (contributory), based on their Irish contribution record. Calculation of an applicant’s entitlement to State pension (contributory) is based on their social insurance record from their date of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Covid-19 Pandemic Supports (3 Feb 2022)

Heather Humphreys: Two specific Covid -19 related income support payments have been introduced since 2020 - the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and Covid (Enhanced) Illness Benefit. The Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) was introduced as one of a number of measures to provide income support to those who had lost their employment as a result of COVID. To date, over 870,000 people have received payment under...