Vol. 506 No. 2
327 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the reason a person (details supplied) in County Mayo has stopped receiving social welfare payments; and when these will be restored in view of the fact it is his only source of income. [15126/99]
To qualify for an unemployment payment a person must be available for and genuinely seeking work. Reviews of recipients' efforts to find work are carried out on an ongoing basis.
In the context of a recent review of his entitlements, the person concerned was asked to provide details of his efforts to find work. Based on his response a deciding officer disallowed his claim from 26 May 1999 on the grounds that he was not genuinely seeking work. The person concerned has appealed this decision and his case will be forwarded to the social welfare appeals office for consideration.
If the means of the person concerned are insufficient to meet his needs it is open to him to apply for supplementary welfare allowance which is administered by the health board. He should contact his local community welfare officer for further details.
328 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the plans, if any, he has to raise the threshold under which recipients of invalidity pension can work before their invalidity pension is affected in view of the fact the present rate of £60 is unrealistic. [15211/99]
One of the qualifying conditions for receipt of invalidity pension requires that the person must be permanently incapable of work. While there is a general rule that invalidity pensioners are not allowed to engage in work, it is nevertheless recognised that support and encouragement should be provided for people with disabilities and those with long-term incapacities to become more self-reliant and less dependent on the social welfare system by facilitating them in taking up available employment and training opportunities.
In this regard, invalidity pensioners are allowed to engage in occupational training where they are incapable of following their usual occupation and also to engage in rehabilitative or therapeutic work. There are no income limits applying to such employment and training. However, an invalidity pensioner must obtain prior approval from the Department before engaging in such employment or training.
Under the social welfare code, an additional qualified adult allowance is payable in respect of a spouse or partner who is being wholly or mainly supported by the claimant. For this purpose, a spouse or partner is not regarded as being wholly or mainly maintained by the claimant if they are in receipt of a social welfare payment in their own right or if they have weekly income in excess of £60 a week.
It has been recognised that the withdrawal of the qualified adult allowance where the spouse's earnings exceeds the £60 limit can act as a poverty trap. As a first step towards alleviating this poverty trap, regulations were introduced in November 1997 to provide for the tapered withdrawal of the qualified adult allowance for people claiming unemployment benefit, unemployment assistance, disability benefit, disability allowance, pre-retirement allowance, injury benefit and unemployability supplement.
Under the revised arrangements, where the spouse or partner is earning between £60 and £90, a reduced rate qualified adult allowance continues to be payable. In the 1999 budget, provision was made to extend the upper limit of the income range from £90 to £105, in order to further enhance the incentive for people to avail of employment opportunities.
In seeking to alleviate the poverty trap caused by the withdrawal of the qualified adult allowance, priority has been given to those schemes where disincentives to employment are most prevalent.
