Written Answers Nos. 146-154
148. Deputy Paudie Coffey asked the Minister for Social Protection further to Parliamentary Question No. 350 of 11 January 2012, if there are any further updates in relation to this matter; if the departmental group has finalised its examination of the unique position of retained fire fighters and their social protection payments; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10833/13]
View answerPart-time fire-fighters are entitled to a jobseeker’s payment in respect of days that they are engaged in fire-fighting or training. They are, however, required to satisfy the statutory conditions for the receipt of a jobseeker’s payment of being available for and genuinely seeking work. In this respect, Deciding Officers do not treat them differently to any other jobseeker’s benefit or allowance claimant.
The introduction of special arrangements exempting them from the requirement to fulfil the statutory conditions for entitlement to jobseeker’s benefit or allowance would raise equity issues vis-a-vis other claimants to jobseeker’s payments. However, taking account of the unusual circumstances of these workers and general efforts to develop and standardise our jobseeker schemes, a group was established in the Department to examine the position of part-time fire-fighters.
Internal deliberations on this issue are still on-going. Further discussions with the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government are also planned. I anticipate that my officials will be in touch with relevant deputies in the near future in this regard.
149. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Social Protection the qualifying criteria in respect of the new momentum education and training scheme; the steps she has taken to address an anomaly whereby those in receipt of supplementary welfare allowance do not qualify for this scheme and yet applicants who have spent periods on back to education allowance, VTOS, FÁS-Fáilte Ireland training courses, Youthreach, community employment schemes, TÚS and so on, are deemed eligible; and if she will review the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 9 who has been accepted on to a course but has now been denied a place due to this anomaly. [10848/13]
View answerThe Momentum initiative provides free education and training projects for up to 6,500 long-term unemployed jobseekers. The initiative is administered by FÁS and funded by the Department of Education & Skills through the National Training Fund (NTF) and co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF).
In line with the commitments given in Pathways to Work, eligibility for the Momentum initiative is specifically targeted at the long term unemployed and a participant must meet the following criteria:
- Be unemployed and on the Live Register for 12 months (312 days) or longer and
- Be in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance/Benefit from the Department of Social Protection (DSP) or credited contributions for 12 months or longer and
- Be actively seeking work.
However, a person who was unemployed for 12 months in the previous 18 months may be considered eligible for the initiative. Periods spent on other activation schemes, for example the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA), Community Employment Schemes, Tús may count towards meeting the eligibility requirements for Momentum, provided the person has completed the scheme/programme and is on the Live Register.
The main purpose of the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme is to provide immediate and flexible temporary or interim assistance for those in need, who do not qualify for payment under other State schemes. SWA may be available to an applicant awaiting the outcome of either a decision - or an appeal against a decision - on a claim for a social welfare payment from the Department. Periods spent solely on SWA are not used towards the qualifying period if no entitlement to a social welfare payment has been established.
The person in question does not meet the qualification criteria for the Momentum initiative requiring 312 days on the live register.
150. Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will outline the supports available for persons registering to participate in Springboard; if rent allowance is available for persons registering to participate on a course in an area other than where they presently reside; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10864/13]
View answerParticipation on a Springboard course will not confer any additional entitlement to receive an income support payment from the Department of Social Protection. Participants who are in receipt of a Department of Social Protection income support payment may be able to retain such payments while pursuing a Springboard course through the part-time education option (PTEO) of the back to education programme. The PTEO allows jobseekers in receipt of jobseekers benefit or jobseekers allowance who wish to pursue a part-time day or evening course of education to retain the payment subject to continuing to meet the eligibility conditions of the jobseekers payment, including being available for and genuinely seeking work. If a payment is due to cease prior to the end of a course, payment cannot be extended past the due cessation date.
Springboard participants are not disqualified from rent supplement on the grounds that they are engaged in these education courses. However, they must also meet the other qualifying conditions of the rent supplement scheme. To qualify for a rent supplement a person must have been residing in private rented accommodation (where at the commencement of the tenancy the person could have reasonably afforded the rent and has experienced a substantial change in his or her circumstances where they are now unable to pay the rent) or accommodation for homeless persons or in an institution (or any combination of these) for a period of 183 days within the preceding 12 months of the date of claim for Rent Supplement.
A person may also qualify for rent supplement where an assessment of housing need has been carried out within the 12 months preceding the date of claim and the person is deemed by the relevant Local Authority to be eligible for and in need of social housing support. Where the above requirements are met the assessment of the claim for Rent Supplement from a Springboard participant may proceed in the normal way.
152. Deputy Kevin Humphreys asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide a list of the members or former members of the Judiciary who, during the past five years, have acted as chairperson or member of any body in or under her Department, or as chairperson or member of any inquiry, or have performed functions including arbitration, mediation, conciliation, patronage, advisory or law reform functions or any other role in or in any body under his Department or in any body wholly or partly funded by her, specifying in each case the name of the judge; if he or she is serving or retired; the court of which he or she is or was a member; the role or function performed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10886/13]
View answerNo members or former members of the judiciary have acted as chairperson or member of any body in or under the aegis of my Department during the past five years. However, in June 2012, Justice Colin Daly resigned his position as Managing Solicitor of the Northside Community Law Centre (NCLC) following his appointment as District Court Judge, and is currently serving in the Dublin area. My Department provides funding to the NCLC under the Scheme of Grants for the Development and Promotion of Information and Welfare Rights.
153. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason jobseeker's allowance has been refused in the case of a person (details supplied) in Dublin 10, who is registered with FÁS and is available for work; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10906/13]
View answerThe jobseeker’s allowance claim of the person concerned has been disallowed as his means were deemed to be in excess of the statutory limit.
154. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding payments in respect of persons (details supplied) in County Kildare; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [10907/13]
View answerSection 248 (2) of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005 (the Act) states that where a person who is in receipt of a benefit which includes an increase in respect of a qualified adult, or where the spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is in receipt of any benefit in his or her own right, dies, payment of the benefit shall continue to be made for 6 weeks after the date of death and shall, during that period, be made to the person and subject to the conditions that may be prescribed.
For the purposes of the Act, a “cohabitant” means a cohabitant within the meaning of section 172(1) of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 i.e. one of 2 adults (whether of the same or the opposite sex) who live together as a couple in an intimate and committed relationship and who are not related to each other within the prohibited degrees of relationship or married to each other or civil partners of each other.
The former partner of the person concerned was paid disability allowance from 17 March 1999 to 21 February 2012. His last payment was on 15 February 2012, the date of his death.
The person in question was not being paid as an adult dependent on the disability allowance application since November 2011. The person in question applied for jobseeker’s allowance on 15 November 2011 and she stated on her application form that she was single. Prior to that she had been living with her partner, who is now deceased, who had been in receipt of disability allowance and who had been paid a qualified adult allowance for her and an increase in respect of their two children.
When the person’s jobseeker’s allowance claim was being investigated she informed the social welfare investigator that she was separated from her partner and that he was living at a different address and she supplied the investigator with evidence to support this contention. She was awarded jobseeker’s allowance at the maximum rate plus an increase in respect of her two qualified children.
In these circumstances, it is considered that the person in question cannot be considered to have been cohabiting with her former partner (now deceased) at the time of his death and, consequently, that she is not entitled to 6 weeks payment of disability allowance after the date of his death.
In the absence of any instruction to the contrary from the former partner of the person in question, she remained as the agent appointed to collect the disability allowance payment. It is considered that this is a matter between the person in question and her former partner (R.I.P.) and that it has no material bearing on the status of the person in question or the alleged entitlement to 6 weeks payment after death.
