Results 15,321-15,340 of 40,550 for speaker:Joan Burton

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobsPlus Scheme (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: JobsPlus provides a direct monthly financial incentive to employers who recruit employees from those who are long term on the live register. The incentive is payable, on a monthly basis, over a two year period if the employee is retained in full time employment for two years. JobsPlus is biased in favour of those who are longer term unemployed. The value of the aggregate monthly payments...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Job Initiatives (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: JobPath is a new programme of employment activation aimed specifically at the long-term unemployed and those most distant from the labour market. The allocation of additional resources to the activation of long term unemployed people was the focus of an updated “Pathways to Work” policy statement published in July 2013 (PTW 2013). The Department examined various resourcing and...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments Administration (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: Last year, the Government approved the Department’s Payment Strategy for the modernisation of welfare payments. One of the primary objectives of this strategy is to reduce the number of cash payments where possible. This will generate significant savings in fees paid for cash services and increase efficiencies in the payment cycles at both departmental and national levels. The...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Applications (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term support to eligible persons living in private-rented accommodation, whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. There are currently approximately 78,000 rent supplement recipients for which the Government has provided in excess of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Job Initiatives (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 26, 34 and 42 together. Gateway is part of a suite of initiatives being offered by the Department which are designed to bridge the gap between unemployment and re-entering the workforce. A budget of €19m has been earmarked for the initiative in 2014. Taken together, some 40,000 work placements will be provided in 2014 under the various schemes...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: The Department has a range of social welfare payments which provide financial support to people with disabilities and their carers. The medical conditions for the receipt of carer’s allowance (CA) and invalidity pension (IP) are not the same and qualification for the latter scheme does not guarantee qualification for the former scheme.For CA, the person receiving care is regarded as...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Review (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: As indicated previously, local development companies support the delivery of a range of programmes and schemes for the Department of Social Protection. The Department will work closely with representatives of the companies and the Irish Local Development Network over the coming months as the implications of the new procurement requirements are determined by individual companies. The Deputy...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Provisions (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: Over the ten years of its existence, the Office of the Pensions Ombudsman has received around 12,000 queries and opened over 5,500 detailed investigation files in relation to occupational pension scheme matters. The Pensions Ombudsman continuously monitors the response time to queries regarding pension complaints and has done so since the establishment of the Office. The Pensions Ombudsman...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: Pathways to Work is the Government’s overarching strategy to address the issue of unemployment both long-term and youth unemployment. In-built in the Strategy is a strong monitoring component, including a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for this purpose. Progress in implementing the priority actions and performance against the KPIs are reported publicly, on a quarterly...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: My Department is committed to providing a professional, inclusive and timely service that is responsive to the needs of its clients, including comprehensive employment support and income support services. It is also committed to conducting its business in an impartial, open and transparent manner and seeks to treat people fairly, with dignity and respect. A customer charter setting out the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Family Income Supplement Applications (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: The family income supplement (FIS) is an in-work support which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings with children. FIS is designed to prevent child and family poverty and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment as compared to social welfare payments. Expenditure on FIS for 2014 is estimated to be of the order of €280 million and it is currently paid to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Data Protection (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: I would like to emphasise to the Deputy that the Department is constantly reviewing and updating its procedures in relation to data protection and will continue to do so. It will continue to cooperate fully, as it has done to date, with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner (ODPC) on all matters relating to data protection including its investigation into the activities of some...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: Family income supplement (FIS) is an employee incentive scheme for low income working families, including one-parent families, aimed at supporting them through supplementing their income while they remain in work. There has been a steady growth both in the number of families supported by FIS over recent years and associated expenditure as set in the table below. Expenditure on the FIS...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Work Placement Programmes (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: Participation in JobBridge is limited to individuals who are in receipt of Jobseeker’s Allowance, Jobseeker’s Benefit, One Parent Family Payment or Disability Allowance, or are signing on for credits for at least 3 months, that is 78 days, within the last 6 months. Those who take up casual or temporary employment may accrue eligibility for JobBridge while engaged in casual or...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Money Advice and Budgeting Service (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: The Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS), under the aegis of the Citizens Information Board ( CIB), assists people who are over-indebted and need help and advice in coping with debt problems, in particular those on low incomes and people living on social welfare payments. In 2014, the Citizens Information Board has been allocated a budget of approximately €46 million of which some...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Youth Guarantee (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: The objective of the Irish implementation plan for the Youth Guarantee is to ensure that young people receive a quality offer of assistance within four months of becoming unemployed. This objective is to be achieved over time by enhancing the Intreo engagement with newly unemployed young people, and by maintaining and developing the current range of education, training and employment...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Pension Fund Fees (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: I propose to take Questions Nos. 79, 80, 82 and 83 together. The pension levy which was introduced by the Minister for Finance to fund the Jobs Initiative in 2011 will be abolished from the 31st of December 2014. An additional levy on pension funds at 0.15% will apply to pension fund assets in 2014 and 2015. This additional levy will continue to help fund theJobs Initiative, including the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Eligibility (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: Self-employed persons are liable for PRSI at the Class S rate of 4% which entitles them to access long-term benefits such as State pension (contributory) and widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's pension (contributory). Ordinary employees who have access to the full range of social insurance benefits pay Class A PRSI at the rate of 4%. In addition, their employers make a PRSI...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Eligibility (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: Carer's allowance is a social assistance payment, made to persons who are providing full time care and attention to elderly people or to people with disabilities and whose income falls below certain limits. The principal conditions for receipt of the allowance are that full-time care and attention is required and is being provided and that the means test is satisfied. The carer must not be...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Education Allowance Eligibility (16 Apr 2014)

Joan Burton: Customers on the back to education allowance may apply for an appropriate social welfare payment for the duration of the summer months. In doing so they must satisfy all relevant conditions and many social welfare schemes do not preclude a customer from engaging in unpaid work. Where a person is in receipt of a jobseeker payment they are required to be unemployed, available to accept an...