Tony Gregory
Question:108 Mr. Gregory asked the Minister for Social Welfare the reason participants on community employment schemes are not awarded family income supplements in spite of qualifying on the basis of their low income. [12496/95]
Written Answers. - Community Employment Schemes.
The community employment (CE) scheme is aimed at providing part-time employment to assist unemployed people, particulary the long-term unemployed, and lone parents to reenter the labour market. The purposes of family income supplement (FIS), on the other hand, is to create an incentive for full-time workers with families — who are in low paid employment — to remain at work. Its purpose, therefore, is intrinsically different to that of CE.
CE weekly rates of payment are £81.30 for a single person and £116.85 for a person with an adult dependant. A sum of £13.20 is payable in respect of each child dependant. CE participants receive payments which are in excess of their entitlements under the unemployment assistance scheme. They also retain their social welfare secondary benefits. For example, a CE participant with an adult dependant and two child dependants receives £143.25 per week, as against an entitlement under long term unemployment assistance of £126.40 per week. CE participants are also free to supplement their payments through earnings from work outside of their working hours on the programme.