Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 19 January 2010
761 Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will respond to the issues raised in correspondence by a person (details supplied) in County Cork regarding the distinction between jobseeker’s benefit and allowance. [1418/10]
View answerJobseeker's Benefit is a short-term insurance-based payment which is designed to provide income support to insured workers during periods of involuntary unemployment. As such, it is not subject to a means-test and can be paid for a period of up to twelve months. In order to qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit, a claimant must be unemployed (for at least 3 days in 6), be aged under 66 years, satisfy the social insurance contribution conditions, be capable of work, be available for and genuinely seeking work, and have suffered a substantial loss of employment.
Jobseeker's Allowance is a means-tested social assistance payment which aims to provide income support to people who do not qualify for the insurance-based jobseeker's payment and who are involuntarily unemployed and, consequently, unable to provide for their own maintenance or for that of their families. To qualify for Jobseeker's Allowance, a claimant must be unemployed, be over 18 and under 66 years of age, be capable of work, be available for and genuinely seeking work, satisfy the means test and meet the habitual residence condition.
It should be noted that a claimant of Jobseeker's Benefit may opt to receive Jobseeker's Allowance if it is more beneficial to him or her provided that they can satisfy the means-test and other conditions applying to the scheme.
Insofar as the Back-to-Work Allowance scheme is concerned, the position is that since May 2009, in order to respond effectively to the growing numbers on the live register and the current employment situation, it was decided to refocus resources on the enterprise strand of the back to work allowance which supports people into self employment and the employee strand of the back to work allowance has been closed to new applicants. The changes introduced provide for:
A reduction in qualifying period required for access to back to work enterprise allowance (BTWEA) from 2 years to 12 months provided a person has an underlying entitlement to jobseeker's allowance. This is in conjunction with a reduction in the period for which the BTWEA is payable from 4 years to 2 years, at 100% of existing social welfare entitlement in the first year and 75% in the second.
Immediate access to a shorter BTWEA, to be called Short Term Enterprise Allowance, for someone who qualifies for Jobseeker's Benefit (with 104 contributions paid in the past 2 years) or who qualifies for statutory redundancy. It will be paid for the duration of the Jobseeker's Benefit claim entitlement. Allowing people who previously participated in the BTWEA scheme and exhausted their entitlement after completion of the scheme, to participate a second time after a period of at least 5 years has elapsed.
The person referred to by the Deputy should discuss any issues of concern regarding his jobseeker's payments with the officers at his local social welfare office.
