Vol. 549 No. 3
57 Mr. Dukes asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he has considered extending the entitlement to family income supplement to persons who are working in a community employment scheme; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6292/02]
The primary role of the community employment, CE, scheme is to provide part-time employment to assist unemployed people, particularly, the long-term unemployed, to re-enter the labour market. The Deputy will be aware that participation levels on CE are gradually being reduced, reflecting the falling numbers of the long-term unemployed and the shift in emphasis away from work experience programmes to training, from which there is a greater level of progression to employment.
The purpose of the family income supplement, FIS, scheme, 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. Extension of FIS to CE participants would not be consistent with these policy objectives. I also emphasise that CE participants receive payments which are in excess of their entitlements under the social welfare system. For example, a CE worker without dependants receives a weekly payment of €148.20 as compared with an entitlement under long-term unemployment assistance of €118.80. In addition, CE participants are free to supplement their payments through earnings from work outside of their working hours on the programme.
Moreover, the CE rate is adjusted based on the number of dependants in the household. This means that a participant who has an adult dependent and three children can receive a payment of €272.30 per week while working in a CE scheme. In addition, participants can retain secondary benefit entitlements for the duration of their participation on the programme, if gross weekly household income is less than €317.43 per week.
The provision of additional family income support via family income supplement is not considered appropriate in the circumstances.
