Social Protection officials may be allowed to sit in on Garda interviews in welfare fraud investigations
Dara Calleary looking at legislation on this issue on foot of recommendations of review group on economic crime
Department of Social Protection
€5.2m in humanitarian payments after Storm Éowyn exceeds annual totals since at least 2017
Payments totalling €3.8 million after in 2023 Storm Babet next highest sum after an extreme weather event
State officially begins search for auto-enrolment investment managers
Primary focus in delayed request for tenders is on charge for managing funds that could grow to €21bn by 2035
It would be pathetic if the united Ireland cause was frustrated by bill for disability benefits
Equally, the cost would be bad reason for the union to persist, so nationalists and unionists should want this spending to fall
Pension auto-enrolment scheme: Long-awaited search for asset managers to start next week
‘My Future Fund’ scheme to apply to those between 23 and 60 who earn at least €20,000
Boosting my UK state pension: do I pay Class 2 or Class 3?
There is a big difference in the cost of making voluntary National Insurance contributions, depending on your circumstances
Spiralling numbers being diagnosed with disabilities will have ‘significant impact’ on social welfare spend
Expenditure on disability income supports up from €3.5 billion in 2010 to €6 billion in 2025
Abolishing means testing of carer’s allowance could cost €3bn a year
Social welfare overpayments of €558 million also noted in briefing note for new Minister for Social Protection
Investigators found 6,000 cases of suspected welfare fraud last year
Data covering a six-year period shows suspected fraud arises most frequently in jobseekers claims
State Pension: What to do if you are locked out by changes in the rules
Social insurance in other countries may deliver pension to victim of government tinkering with State pension age and PRSI rules
Welfare system needed stronger ‘trigger’ to force unemployed to engage with employment services
Penalty of €44 viewed as not being effective
‘Too many’ unentitled asylum applicants, says Minister, signalling cut in supports
Cutting Ukrainian hosting payment will ‘push people into homelessness’, say advocacy groups
Department of Social Protection paid €1.4m a week to consultancies for IT projects
Department paid €126.51m to four largest suppliers of information technology services over two years
Civil servants’ union aims to stop department ‘solo runs’ on hybrid working
Minister says increased office attendance is needed for sufficient ‘in-person interaction with colleagues’
538 public servants are on career breaks. One has lasted 12 years
At least 50 employees of Government departments and their agencies on career break for five years or more
‘There’s a blurring of boundaries’: Workers and managers on remote working in the civil service
Some readers point out negatives of lack of office time: ‘I believe that working from home is eroding what it means and feels like to be part of a team’
Civil servants to keep existing remote working arrangements pending talks process with unions
Taoiseach says there is a ‘balance to be struck’ on office attendance in Civil Service
Civil Service remote working: how often do you work in the office? Have you been asked to come in more frequently?
Fórsa says Department of Social Protection staff and some staff in Department of Finance have been instructed to increase number of office workdays
Ireland joins global row-back on working-from-home arrangements
The last government introduced legislation on remote and flexible working, but attempts are under way to get staff into the office
Civil servants told to spend more time in office as working from home scaled back
Department of Social Protection staff told to work up to three days weekly in office, depending on grade
‘It’s kind of become our daughter’s cheat meal’: The view on new hot school meals programme
The scheme now covers nearly 2,200 schools, and 345,000 children, but some parents and teachers have concerns about nutritional standards
Don’t leave PRSI benefits on the table - they can save you thousands of euro
Free dental, optical and aural care is available to more than 2 million people under the State treatment benefit scheme
Can I get a State pension if I only start work here in my late 50s?
Recent reforms make State pension drawdown more flexible but also change how it is calculated
‘Misuse and abuse’ of State payment by some hosts of Ukrainian refugees, charity warns
Helping Irish Hosts calls for accommodation recognition payment scheme to be extended so Irish households can host refugees in direct provision
Breakfast clubs in Deis primary schools: ‘If it wasn’t here and you’d had no breakfast you’d be on the yard hungry’
Calls increasing for expansion of breakfast clubs to all Deis primary schools amid rising deprivation
Number of under 30s in receipt of disability allowance has doubled in a decade
Substantial part of the increase among younger people is attributed to mental health issues
Renters and households with children most likely to have income that doesn’t match needs - ESRI
New study finds Irish households on average need 45% of disposable weekly income, after housing costs, to cover basic expenditure
Selling new workplace pension is getting harder all the time
Department of Social Protection now looking at flat-fee structure to run scheme that disadvantages poorest paid
Looming launch of auto-enrolment pensions means no honeymoon for incoming minister
Companies have just nine months to prepare for mandatory workplace pension contributions from around 800,000 workers
Number of jobseeker’s allowance recipients sanctioned this year set to double
Payment reductions imposed on 9,000 people up to end of October compared with 5,200 for entirety of 2023, figures show
Search for auto-enrolment asset managers to start within weeks
Officials now plan flat charge on participants to run scheme which will hit lower paid people harder
First election poll shows it wouldn’t take much for the race to start looking very tight
Irish Times poll shows Fine Gael are clear front runners so far in this election. But the drop in Simon Harris’s and his party ratings will keep everyone on their toes
Supreme Court to rule on ‘systemically important’ carer’s allowance case
Decision could have profound effect on State’s obligations to carers of severely disabled children
Irish farmers describe use of imported Dutch cheese in school meals programme as ‘insult’
Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association says it has received complaints about use of imported Dutch cheese in school meals programme
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