Results 161-180 of 25,281 for speaker:Heather Humphreys

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Carer's Benefit is a payment made to insured people who leave the workforce or reduce their working hours to care for a child or an adult in need of full-time care and attention. To qualify, the carer must satisfy PRSI conditions, employment conditions, show that they are providing full-time care and attention and must show that the care recipient requires full-time care and attention....

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The objective of the School Meals Programme is to provide regular, nutritious food to children to support them in taking full advantage of the education provided to them. he Programme is an important component of policies to encourage school attendance and extra educational achievement. Following the expansion of the Programme in recent years, some 2,600 schools and organisations,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Contracts (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Free Travel scheme provides free travel on the main public and private transport services for those eligible under the scheme. A total of €16.4m was paid across all private operators in the Free Travel scheme in 2023, including bus and ferry operators. The Free Travel Scheme is available to all persons aged over 66 and those under age 66 on certain qualified payments, who are...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The table below sets out the estimated PRSI yield that would be raised for each of the rate increases in the years concerned. In calculating the estimated yield from the specified employer PRSI rates on the portion of earnings in excess of €100,000 for classes A,B,C,D,E and H a 'netting off' approach has been taken to ensure there is no double-counting. The net yield is the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The living alone increase is a payment for people aged 66 years or over who are in receipt of certain social welfare payments, including state pension (contributory), state pension (non-contributory), widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's (contributory) pension, widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's (non-contributory) pension, widow's/widower's pension under the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department may make an Additional Needs Payment (ANP) to help meet essential expenditure which an eligible person could not reasonably be expected to meet from their weekly income. ANPs are awarded at the discretion of the Designated Persons administering the scheme considering the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Disability Allowance (DA) is a weekly allowance paid to people with a specified disability who are aged 16 or over and under the age of 66. This disability must be expected to last for at least one year and the allowance is subject to a medical assessment, means test and Habitual Residency conditions. I confirm that my Department received an application for DA from the person concerned on...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Personal Public Service Numbers (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Further to Dáil Question number 236 dated 18/04/2024, the person concerned applied for a Personal Public Service (PPS) Number on 27/03/2024. The person has been contacted on several occasions and asked to provide evidence of a valid reason for their PPS Number request. As this information remains outstanding, their application cannot be processed. In order to obtain a PPS Number, a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: As the details supplied within the parliamentary question for the person concerned do not match the records of my department, and without information relating to the circumstances of the person concerned, my officials are unable to advise on an income support payment. My department is responsible for the administration and payment of a range of supports to assist an eligible person who is...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Labour Market (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Intreo Employment Service delivered by my Department offers a comprehensive range of employment services and supports. Employment Personal Advisors offer advice and guidance on job search tools and techniques and employment opportunities. An Employment Personal Advisor from the Maynooth Employment Services Office, located at Claremount House, Kelly’s Lane, Maynooth, Co. Kildare,...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Government acknowledges the valuable role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting carers in that role. This commitment is recognised in both the Programme for Government and the National Carers’ Strategy. The main income supports to carers provided by my department are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Benefits (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Bereavement Grant, which was a once-off payment of €850 for funeral costs, was discontinued in January 2014. The number of bereavement grant claims in 2013 was 23,716 at a cost of €20.3 million. It is estimated that the cost of reintroducing the grant would be close to €31 million per annum and would increase annually. Accordingly, any decision to reinstate such a...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Priorities (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Benefit Payment for 65-Year-Olds was introduced in line with the Programme for Government commitment to address the position of people who are required to or choose to retire at age 65 before the State pension age of 66. The payment is designed to bridge the gap for people who retire from employment or self-employment at age 65 until they qualify for the State Pension at age 66. This...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions. The Chief Appeals Officer continually monitors the number of appeals on hands and processing times. Every effort is made to ensure...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Priorities (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: This Government acknowledges the important role that family carers play and is fully committed to supporting them in that role. Accordingly, the State Pension system currently gives significant recognition to those whose work history includes an extended period outside of paid employment, often to raise families or in a full-time caring role. Despite these measures, some long-term carers...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Priorities (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department understands the many pressures faced by customers and always seeks to ensure that claims are handled quickly and efficiently. I am sure that the Deputy can appreciate how processing times can vary across schemes, depending on the differing qualification criteria. Schemes that require a high level of documentary evidence from the customer, particularly in the case of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Priorities (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Social Welfare Appeals Office is an Office of the Department of Social Protection which is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements. Appeals Officers are independent in their decision making functions. The below table shows a breakdown of the average processing times for all appeals over the past 10 years and from 1st January 2024...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The information requested by the Deputy on those schemes is provided in the attached tabular statement. Table 1: State Pension (Contributory) claims registered, awarded, rejected and pending, by year Year Registered Awarded Rejected Pending at end December 2019 41,551 20,737 16,063 4,883 ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Priorities (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is a monthly allowance payable in respect of a child aged under 16 who has a severe disability requiring continual or continuous care and attention substantially in excess of the care and attention normally required by a child of the same age and where the level of the child's disability is such that the child is likely to require this level of care and...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Priorities (25 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Supplementary Welfare Allowance scheme is the safety net within the overall social welfare system in that it provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependents. Supports provided under the scheme can consist of a basic weekly payment, a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of certain expenses, as well as...