Results 18,101-18,120 of 40,330 for speaker:Leo Varadkar

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Overpayments (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Overpayments of entitlement are a feature of all social protection and assistance systems. This reflects the dynamic nature of the changing eligibility and entitlements of persons in receipt of payments. Significant information system developments, including the sharing of information between agencies, have been implemented in recent years to enhance the timeliness and quality of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Administration (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 45 and 97 together. The annual budget provided to Community Employment (CE) schemes includes an amount to cover consumable services and materials, including insurance, necessary for the effective operation of the project. My Department has become aware in recent times of an increase in insurance premiums for CE schemes. The main reasons cited for this is an...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Code (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: No, I was not. I firmly believe that people and families know how best to organise their own lives and make decisions for themselves and I also believe that the role of the State should be to offer a helping hand to those people and families that need it. That is why I want the social protection system and anti-poverty policies to focus on improving and extending existing contributory...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: JobPath Implementation (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The JobPath model has a number of key features which enables my Department to monitor the service provider’s performance and ensure contract compliance. Every participant is provided with a service guarantee - a baseline level of service covering frequency of engagement, personal progression planning, geographic accessibility and in-employment support. The service providers are...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Domiciliary Care Allowance Applications (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) claims that require medical and other supporting documentation can take some time to properly assess, particularly as the opinion of one of the department’s medical assessor’s is routinely required. Increasing numbers applying for DCA have been a feature of this scheme in recent years. In the 4 year period from 2013 to 2016 the number of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Jobseeker's Allowance Payments (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 50 and 51 together. In line with other EU and OECD jurisdictions where such measures feature, reduced rates for younger jobseeker’s allowance recipients were first introduced in 2009 and extended to those under 26 in Budget 2014. These measures were introduced to protect young people from welfare dependency by providing young jobseekers with a strong...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Welfare Fraud (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 52, 59, 60, 78 and 93 together. The Department administers over 70 separate schemes and services, which affect the lives of almost every person in the State. In 2016, some 1.7 million applications for benefit, assistance and access to schemes were received and processed and over 82 million individual payments were made to people across all age groups and to...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Insurance Fund Data (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: At 31 December 2016, the total amount owed to the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) was €459 million in employer debt and €89 million in customer debt. These figures are provisional pending finalisation of the SIF Financial Statements. Employers pay into the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) at a rate of up to 10.75% of employee salaries. This payment is designed to contribute to the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Maternity Benefit Administration (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 54, 76 and 83 together. Maternity benefit is a payment made to women who are on maternity leave from work and are covered by It is a payment for employed and self-employed women who satisfy certain PRSI contribution conditions. Some 45,000 maternity benefit claims were processed last year and a similar number is expected in 2017. The rate of maternity...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Social Insurance Fund Deficit (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 55 and 98 together. Employers pay into the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) at a rate of up to 10.75% of employee salaries. This payment is designed to contribute to the cost of benefits paid out of the social insurance fund. One of the benefits funded by the SIF is the provision of redundancy related payments in circumstances where the employer making the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Pension (Contributory) Eligibility (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Each year more people are living to pension age and living longer in retirement. As a result of this demographic change, the number of State pension recipients is increasing year on year. This has significant implications for the future costs of State pension provision, and demographic change alone is expected to increase spending on pensions by over €220 million this year, not...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: State Bodies Mergers (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: In February, the Board of Citizens Information Board (CIB) decided the new governance arrangements for local service delivery would comprise of sixteen boards, eight Citizens Information Services (CIS) and 8 Money Advice and Budgeting Services (MABS). Before making its final decision, CIB had engaged in an extensive and comprehensive consultation process, involving service delivery...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Carer's Allowance Appeals (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Carer's Allowance (CA) is a means-tested social assistance payment, made to persons who are providing full-time care and attention to a person who has a disability such that they require that level of care. During 2016, the CA section which is based in my Department’s office in Longford, processed 31,881 applications. Each decision notice offered the recipient a right of review...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Rent Supplement Scheme Data (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Rent supplement plays a vital role in housing families and individuals, with the scheme supporting 43,700 recipients for which the Government has provided €253 million for in 2017. There are approximately 1,800 rent supplement recipients aged 18 to 24 years old. A breakdown of these young customers, on a county basis for the period 2014 to date, is provided in the table. As part of...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Back to Work Enterprise Allowance Scheme (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) scheme enables my Department to work with people who have found themselves dependent on the welfare system for various reasons but who have an idea or have identified an opportunity to start their own business. The participants on the scheme have evolved their enterprises and developed their ideas with the assistance of Departmental Case Officers...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Widow's Pension Eligibility (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 63, 71 and 92 together. In order to qualify for a widow’s, widower’s or surviving civil partner’s contributory pension, a person must satisfy certain social insurance conditions and be a widow, widower or (since 1 January 2011) a surviving civil partner, and not be in a cohabiting relationship. The contributions must have been paid on...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Community Employment Schemes Administration (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 64 and 89 together. My Department provides a range of activation supports and programmes catering for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market. These schemes help to break the cycle of unemployment and improve a person’s chances of returning to the labour market. Jobseekers receive information about all...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Construction Industry (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: I propose to take Questions Nos. 65 and 84 together. I am aware of the report on ‘bogus self-employment’ that the Deputy refers to. It was submitted by TASC to the interdepartmental group on disguised employment as part of its public consultation. The interdepartmental working group, comprising officials from the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Finance...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: Employment Support Services (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: Government policy to reduce unemployment is twofold. First, through policies set out in the Action Plan for Jobs, to create an environment in which business can succeed and create jobs; and second, through Pathways to Work to ensure that as many as possible of these new jobs and other vacancies that arise in our economy are filled by people taken from the Live Register, and in particular the...

Written Answers — Department of Social Protection: School Meals Programme (31 May 2017)

Leo Varadkar: The school meals programme provides funding towards the provision of food to 1,460 schools and organisations benefitting over 200,000 children at a total cost of some €47.7 million in 2017. As part of Budget 2017, the funding for the scheme was substantially increased this year by an additional €5.7 million (representing almost 14% over the previous year’s allocation)...