Written Answers. - Task Force Recommendations.
Denis Foley
Question:
14
Mr. Foley
asked the
Minister for Social Welfare
the action, if any, he intends to take in response to the recommendations of the task force on long-term unemployment in relation to the social welfare code and in particular to the recommendation of the task force that the role and objectives of individual income support measures need to be clarified and streamlined to ensure that they complement one another; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
[7195/96]
The task force on long-term unemployment noted in its final report the need for the various positive discrimination measures for employers, employees and the self-employed to be streamlined to ensure that they complement one another effectively. It recommended that the range of measures be further examined when the evaluation of the back to work allowance and the area allowance scheme had been completed and the report of the expert group on the integration of the tax and social welfare systems became available. It also noted that the interdepartmental strategy group on employment and unemployment would provide an appropriate forum to address those issues.
The independent evaluation of the back to work allowance which has recently been completed is now being examined in the Department. I understand that the evaluation of the area allowance scheme will be completed by the middle of the year. The final report of the expert group on the integration of tax and social welfare will also be finalised by the middle of the year. The examination recommended by the task force can then be undertaken in the light of the findings contained in those reports.
In general terms, the thrust of the recommendations of the task force on long-term unemployment is to provide opportunities for the long-term unemployed to get back into employment. In this context, the Deputy will be aware that the Social Welfare Bill, 1996 gives effect to a number of pro-employment measures which were announced in the budget earlier this year and which are designed to provide incentives to the unemployed, and particularly the long-term unemployed, to re-enter the labour force.
Amongst the measures provided for in the 1996 budget are:
—an increase in the PRSI-free allowance from £50 per week to £80 per week together with reductions in the employer PRSI rates from 9 per cent to 8.5 per cent in the case of the lower incentive rate and from 12.2 per cent to 12 per cent in the case of the main rate;
—an increase of £10 in the income limits applied in determining entitlement to family income supplement, which will mean that most current recipients will get an increase of £6 a week;
—the continued payment of increases for dependent children for up to 13 weeks to people in receipt of such increases at the full rate who have been unemployed for 12 months or more and who take up employment which is expected to last for at least four weeks;
—the reform of unemployment assistance which is designed to simplify the arrangements for claiming unemployment assistance and to make it more attractive for recipients to take up part-time or casual work opportunities;
—an increase of 5,000 in the number of back to work allowances from 10,000 to 15,000 places during 1996 — at present over 11,000 are in payment.
I am confident that these measures, allied to the range of other pro-employment measures announced in the budget, will prove to be effective in tackling the long-standing problem of long-term unemployment.
