Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 24 April 2013
223. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs the reason persons on the jobbridge schemes are treated differently from other persons on activation schemes and persons in receipt of social welfare for the purposes of the childcare subvention scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19409/13]
View answerThe Community Childcare Subvention (CCS) programme provides funding to community childcare not-for-profit services to enable them to charge reduced childcare rates to parents in receipt of social welfare payments or on low to middle incomes. Community childcare services qualify for grant aid on the basis of the level of service they provide and the profile of the parents benefiting from their service.
Parents qualify for support under the CCS programme on the basis of their social welfare entitlement. The JobBridge scheme, which is implemented by the Department of Social Protection, is a National Internship Scheme which provides work experience placement for unemployed people. Participants in the JobBridge scheme receive a weekly allowance of €50 in addition to any social welfare entitlement they may have.
Participants in the JobBridge scheme do not, on the basis of participation in the scheme, automatically qualify for subvention under the CCS programme but qualify on the basis of their underlying social welfare entitlement. For example, a parent who was in receipt of Job Seekers benefit and who holds a medical card qualifies for a subvention payment of €50 per week towards the cost of full-time childcare. If that parent enters the JobBridge scheme they will continue to be subvented at the rate of €50 per week for the duration of their participation in the scheme.
A parent entering the JobBridge scheme and having been in receipt of a social welfare payment that qualified them for the higher rate of subvention of €95 per week under the CCS programme would maintain that level of subvention support for the duration of their participation in the JobBridge scheme.
