Results 1-20 of 20,274 for speaker:Heather Humphreys in 'Written Answers'

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: General Register Office (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The research room is based in Werburgh Street, Dublin and is operated by staff from the General Register Office and operates under the aegis of my Department. Prior to Covid-19 the office opened 5 days a week. The enforced closure of the office to the public during Covid highlighted an issue around access to the records held in the research room. Access to the indexes used for research...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Correspondence (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The Deputy will appreciate that I cannot comment or intervene on the pension arrangements applying to a particular pension scheme. My Department has no role in setting the level of pension increases received by members of occupational pension schemes, irrespective of whether those schemes operate in the public or private sector. Pension increases for occupational pensions are a matter...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 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 this person on 21...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Carer's Leave (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The main income supports to carers provided by the Department of Social Protection are Carer’s Allowance, Carer’s Benefit, Domiciliary Care Allowance and the Carer’s Support Grant. Spending on these payments is expected to amount to over €1.7 billion this year. The Carer’s Leave Act 2001 allows employees to leave work temporarily to provide full-time care...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My Department offers supports for people seeking employment though the Intreo service including EmployAbility, Early Engagement and grants such as JobsPlus. We are in the middle of reviewing and reforming a number of schemes aimed specifically at supporting disabled people into employment. The Reasonable Accommodation Fund provides financial support for people with disabilities and for...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Cash welfare payments are governed by the Department’s Cash Payment Services Contract with An Post which was signed in December 2019 following an open public procurement process. This contract came into effect on 1 January 2020. This contract is exclusively with An Post. There is no contractual relationship between my Department and post masters. The working arrangements of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Broadband Infrastructure (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: My department has a total of 18 copper communication lines and has a programme underway to remove the dependency on copper-based leased lines.

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: School Meals Programme (30 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. The 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: Social Welfare Eligibility (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: As part of Budget 2024, the Department of Social Protection assisted families and vulnerable citizens through a mix of lump sum supports and increases to weekly payments. The measures introduced included the provision of once-off Cost-of-Living lump sums, to recipients of Disability Allowance, Blind Pension, Invalidity Pension and the Carer's Support Grant. Recipients who are in receipt of...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The data requested by the Deputy is shown in the attached tabular statement. Note that these figures include instances where a person may have been entitled to a higher rate of payment on the State Pension Non-Contributory. In these cases the claim is rejected but the person is awarded the non-contributory pension instead. Month Number rejected January...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Eligibility (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Domiciliary Care Allowance (DCA) is a monthly allowance payable to a parent/guardian 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...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Schemes (30 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. There are over one million customers with direct eligibility. The estimated expenditure on free travel in 2024 is €104 million. It is important to note that, in general, access to a free travel pass for those aged under 66 is linked to a person being in...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Widow's Pension (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Under the law as currently enacted, entitlement to a Widows, Widowers or Surviving Civil Partner’s Contributory pension is only available to a surviving partner who was party to a marriage or civil partnership. On Monday 22nd January the Supreme Court delivered its judgment in relation to the entitlement of an unmarried co-habitant to a Widows, Widowers or Surviving Civil...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The state pension (contributory) entitlement of the person concerned was reviewed. The pension was awarded with effect from 13 August 2022, the date the person reached 66 at the current weekly rate of €249.30 which is equivalent to 90% of the maximum rate pension. The rate awarded is based on a total of 1340 reckonable contributions and credits from 1974 to 2022 plus homemaking...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: State Pensions (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The state pension (contributory) entitlement of the person concerned was reviewed. HomeCaring Periods were awarded from 25/09/1976 to 05/04/1987 and 06/04/1991 to 01/10/1999. This resulted in an increase in their weekly rate from €250.30 to €275.60, equivalent to 99.38% of the maximum rate. The increased rate issued to the person concerned on 26 April 2024. The increased...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (30 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. During 2023, the Department received over 28,700 new applications for DA. Over the course...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (30 Apr 2024)

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. Please find below the number of CA applications submitted in each of the years 2020 to 2023 and to date in 2024 ...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Departmental Data (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Invalidity Pension (IP) is a payment for people who are permanently incapable of work because of illness or incapacity and for no other reason and who satisfy the pay-related social insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions. Where an applicant's Invalidity Allowance claim is initially disallowed based on medical suitability, they have the option to request a review of this decision. This...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: Intreo is the single point of contact for employment and income supports. The aim of Intreo is to provide income support and a professional employment service to help unemployed jobseekers and others to secure sustainable employment. In order to be eligible for a Jobseekers's payment a person must satisfy all conditions including the requirement to genuinely seek employment. To satisfy...

Written Answers — Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection: Social Welfare Payments (30 Apr 2024)

Heather Humphreys: The matter of waste collection charges is the responsibility of my colleague the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications. I am advised by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications that there is no national waiver scheme for household waste collection. The waste management market in Ireland is now serviced by private companies, where prices charged are...