asked the Minister for Social Welfare the position of a person receiving unmarried mother's allowance who takes up a holiday relief job for two or three weeks; if this disqualifies her from entitlement to unmarried mother's allowance; if he will clarify the circumstances in which recipients of unmarried mother's allowance may take up a temporary job without losing their allowance; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Written Answers. - Unmarried Mother's Allowance.
64.
A claimant in receipt of unmarried mother's allowance would not necessarily be disqualified from entitlement to the allowance solely on account of the earnings from a temporary job which lasts 2 or 3 weeks.
In such a case, if the claimant is definitely only taking up employment for a 2 or 3 week period, the allowance would not be terminated on the commencement of the job and the income would be taken into account as part of her averaged means over the year as a whole. The claimant must, however, inform the Department that she is taking up the temporary employment and furnish all the relevant details of the employment.
In arriving at the weekly means of a claimant to unmarried mother's allowance:
—her annual income from all sources is aggregated/estimated;
—£312 (£6 multiplied by 52 weeks) is disregarded per child;
—the net total for the year is then divided by 52 to give the assessable weekly means figure.
The appropriate weekly rate of payment is then assessed in accordance with the graduated scale of weekly means and related payments, as set out at page 20 of the Department's current rates booklet. It will be seen from this that a claimant may have means of £6 per week without having any effect on the rate of allowance payable to her and that an unmarried mother with one child could qualify for some rate of payment unless her average assessable means exceeded £60 per week.
In cases where claimants take up longer duration employments, or where a temporary job might become extended, payment of the allowance may be terminated and the claimant would have to reapply if she again became unemployed. Termination of the allowance would take place where it was clear that the nature and duration of the job would place the claimant outside the means limit.
If the Deputy has any particular case in mind, any further relevant information can be provided if he contacts the Department.