asked the Minister for Social Welfare whether he is aware that a widow who is in receipt of a widow's contributory or non-contributory pension and who does casual work does not qualify for full unemployment benefit, despite the fact that she has paid normal contributions; and whether he will take steps to end the practice of paying only half benefit in such cases, and to allow such persons full benefit.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Widows' Unemployment Benefit.
61.
It is a general principle of the social welfare schemes that only one type of benefit should be paid to a claimant in respect of any period even though more than one of the contingencies for which benefit is provided under the various schemes has arisen in that period in the particular case. This principle has, however, been considerably modified in its application to widows by the Social Welfare (Overlapping Benefits) Regulations, 1953 to 1963, under which unemployment benefit can be paid in addition to widows' contributory or non-contributory pension. Under the regulations, a widow in receipt of a contributory pension who qualifies for unemployment benefit is paid half the appropriate personal rate of unemployment benefit; if her pension is non-contributory, the rate of benefit payable depends on the rate of the pension and can range from half of the appropriate personal rate of unemployment benefit to as much as the full rate, plus appropriate adjustments in respect of any dependent children. It is considered that these are generous concessions— which, I might add, also apply to disability benefit—and it is not proposed to alter them.