The Deputy is referring to a person who is employed as a home help for five days per week.
Social welfare legislation provides that all unemployed persons must satisfy the conditions of being available for full-time employment and genuinely seeking work in order to be entitled to unemployment assistance. Any person who fails to satisfy these conditions on an ongoing basis is not entitled to an the payment.
A person who engages in part-time work for three days or less per week may qualify for unemployment assistance in respect of the remaining days of the week provided he or she continues to be available for full-time employment. They must also satisfy all of the statutory conditions connected to the payment.
Persons employed as home helps are eligible to apply for unemployment assistance for any days or weeks during which they are not engaged in home help duties provided they are otherwise available for full-time employment and genuinely seeking work. Any income deriving from participation in the home help service is not, in general, taken into account as means for the purposes of determining entitlement to unemployment assistance.
To qualify for payment, however, they must be fully unemployed for at least three days in any period of six consecutive days. A person who works for a period during each of five days in a week does not qualify for unemployment assistance in that week even if the total number of hours of work is less than 20.