Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 1351: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the maximum income the spouse of a person receiving jobseeker's benefit may earn for the jobseeker to retain entitlement to the maximum and the minimum amount of assistance possible under the private mortgage interest supplement scheme; and if she will provide a sliding scale of entitlement by income level. [31163/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The purpose of Mortgage Interest Supplement is to provide short term income support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of residence. The supplement assists with the interest portion of the mortgage repayments only.

Under standard SWA rules, Mortgage Interest Supplements are normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of mortgage interest, has an income equal to the rate of SWA appropriate to their family circumstances less a minimum contribution, currently €13, which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Many recipients pay more than €13 because they are required also, subject to income disregards, to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic SWA rate towards their accommodation costs.

Since June 2007, where a person has additional income in excess of the standard weekly rate of supplementary welfare allowance, the first €75 of such additional income together with 25% of any additional income above €75 is disregarded for means assessment purposes.

In determining entitlement to mortgage interest supplement, the Executive must be satisfied that the amount of the mortgage interest payable by the claimant does not exceed such amount as it considers reasonable to meet his or her residential and other needs. In exceptional circumstances, the Health Service Executive may award a supplement where the amount of mortgage interest payable by a person exceeds such amount as the Health Service Executive considers reasonable to meet his or her residential and other needs in general such supplement is paid for a maximum of 12 months from the date of the claim.

Subject to a person meeting the qualifying conditions of the scheme, there are a number of factors that would affect the amount of mortgage interest supplement payable in any case including: the size of the mortgage and the amount of mortgage interest payable; the earnings of the spouse and its impact on the amount of jobseekers benefit payable in respect of a qualified adult; the number of hours per week worked: mortgage interest supplement is not payable where a member of the household works for 30 or more hours per week; whether the Executive considers the amount of mortgage interest to be reasonable.

It is therefore not possible to provide a meaningful maximum or minimum amount of mortgage interest supplement that could be payable. However, an example is set out in the attached tabular statement, based on a person paying €200 per week in mortgage interest. The tabular statement sets out the amount of mortgage interest supplement that would be payable where a spouse of a person receiving jobseekers benefit engages in employment at the minimum wage at up to 29 hours per week. This shows that as household income increases, the amount of mortgage interest supplement payable is reduced, but at a slower rate so that the household is financially better off as the income from employment increases.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 1352: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the general criteria applying to those applying to their local community welfare officer for humanitarian aid following the August 2008 floods; if income thresholds are applied; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31164/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, which is administered by the Community Welfare Division of the Health Service Executive (HSE), is designed to provide immediate and flexible assistance for those in need who do not qualify for payment under other State schemes.

Under the legislation governing the scheme, the HSE may make a single payment to meet an exceptional need to people on social welfare or health service executive payments. This is a once-off payment to meet an unforeseen or special need that cannot be met from a person's basic income. Assistance in the form of an Urgent Needs Payment (UNP) can be also made to persons who would not normally be entitled to SWA, to assist, for example in cases of flood damage with immediate needs, such as food, clothing, fuel, household goods and shelter. Assistance can be provided to people affected in cash or in kind.

There is no automatic entitlement to these payments. Each application is determined on the particular circumstances of the case. In assessing income, consideration is given as to whether a person is in receipt of a social welfare or health service executive payment or to the gross household income with allowance made as appropriate under normal SWA means assessments.

Over the past few months, flooding has been experienced in a number of areas of the country. The Department's role in response to the recent flooding primarily involves supporting the community welfare service in the provision of ENP and UNP funding in the short term and other supports where applicable to cater for the long term effects of the flooding. Any support given relates to damage to a person's home or loss of essential items. It does not extend to business or commercial losses.

Local community welfare officers are available to provide assistance on an individual basis where that is warranted. Any person experiencing hardship as a result of the recent flooding should contact their local Community Welfare Officer in the first instance.

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 1353: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs when child benefit will be restored to a person (details supplied) in County Mayo. [31174/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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People receiving Child Benefit are required, from time to time to complete a residency certification letter to confirm their on-going entitlement to the payment. A certification letter issued to the customer on 08/07/08 and as no reply was received within the specified time limit of 21 days, payment was suspended. A response was received from the customer on 15/09/08 and payment was restored for all her children, on 19/09/08. This payment will be available for collection at her nominated post office on Tuesday 30th September.

Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)
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Question 1357: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will amend the regulations governing the fuel allowance scheme to allow for discretion to be exercised by himself to allow for back dating of payment of fuel allowance in circumstances where the householder would have normally qualified for the fuel allowance scheme but where the household had not made an application on time; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31527/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Department's role is to assist social welfare recipients with heating costs, both through their basic payments and through the household benefits package with fuel, electricity and gas allowances. These schemes have been improved significantly in recent years.

Fuel Allowance is ordinarily paid to eligible people from the date of application. The majority of people applying for Fuel Allowance do so at the same time as their application for a primary social welfare payment. If eligible, a person's primary payment and fuel allowance are put into payment at the same time. Backdating may occur where there are extenuating circumstances and applies to individual cases only.If the Deputy has a particular case in mind, perhaps he could provide details to the Department so that the issue can be reviewed.