Written Answers. - Employment Support Services.
Trevor Sargent
Question:
153
Mr. Sargent
asked the
Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs
the reason, in September 1998, it was the policy of his Department to allow a person on social welfare to apply through a back to work scheme to borrow £78,000 to purchase a taxi licence which today requires repayments of £880 per month on the cost of the licence and a further repayment of £432 per month on a loan to purchase a car for a taxi business in view of the fact the Government has embarked on a course which would seriously affect the value of the taxi licence as Government decisions have since proven; and the options available to individuals now faced with a debt that appears impossible to repay.
[28841/00]
The objective of the back to work allowance scheme is to provide a financial incentive to lone parents and long-term unemployed persons to return to the active labour force.
In addition to weekly payments being made over a four year period, the self-employed strand of the scheme, the back to work enterprise scheme, has a number of additional supports available to help people start their own business.
There are two ways of obtaining loans under the back to work enterprise scheme. In 1997, my Department agreed to make the sum of £500,000 available to the Irish League of Credit Unions to
guarantee loans for back to work participants who are members of credit unions and who may need access to capital to start up or develop their self-employment enterprise.
My Department also has a joint funding arrangement with the First Step Charity – a private sector company with approved charitable status – under which interest-free loans are available to suitable back to work enterprise recipients who require seed capital in order to establish their own business. In some cases loan repayments are made through deductions from their weekly back to work enterprise allowance.
Many successful and diverse businesses have been set up with the help of loans obtained under the aegis of the back to work enterprise scheme.
However, a limit of £5,000 applies to loans obtained with the help of the scheme. Therefore, the purchase of a taxi plate for £78,000 as outlined in the Deputy's question, would not be covered by the Department's funding initiatives where the maximum available is £5,000. Funding in such a case would be a matter for the individual concerned.
