I propose to take Questions Nos. 416 and 417 together.
Family income supplement (FIS) is an in-work cash support for employees with families on low earnings. It tackles in-work poverty and provides an incentive to employment as opposed to welfare dependency. The estimated expenditure on FIS for 2013 is expected to be about €229 million in respect of some 42,000 families. An increased budget of €282 million has been provided for FIS in Budget 2014.
To qualify for payment of FIS, a person must be engaged in full-time insurable employment which is expected to last for at least 3 months and be working for a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight or 19 hours per week. A couple may combine their hours of employment to meet the qualification criteria. For low income workers with less than the minimum hours of employment for FIS and working on a casual basis up to and including 3 days per week, jobseeker’s schemes provide in-work income support through daily disregards and tapered withdrawal of payments.
Current Social Welfare legislation provides that FIS and jobseekers benefit/allowance cannot be paid to a person in respect of the same period. However, a person in receipt of FIS
whose work pattern changes can collect jobseekers benefit/allowance instead of their FIS for weeks where they are out of work, if this is financially more beneficial to them. In this situation payment of FIS is suspended for the weeks the person is claiming jobseekers benefit/allowance. The FIS payment resumes again for the weeks that the person is working. The person must continue to satisfy the condition of working at least 19 hours per week or 38 hours per fortnight to avail of this arrangement.
A P60 is one of a number of documents required in order to determine average assessable earnings. It is normal practice to look at an applicant’s and a spouse/civil partner/cohabitant’s earnings over a long period of time from their P60. However, if the applicant/spouse/civil partner/cohabitant have only recently commenced or changed employment or had a change to the conditions of their employment, such as reduced hours, average assessable earnings would normally be calculated on the earnings since the relevant conditions changed.
An integral part of the FIS scheme is that once the level of payment is determined, it continues to be payable at that rate for a period of 52 weeks, provided that the person remains in full time employment. An advantage of this approach, which is unique to the FIS scheme, is that claimants can be certain that they will receive a guaranteed level of income support throughout the period. This certainty is important to the success of the scheme in providing an incentive to low-paid workers with families to avail of employment opportunities.
Persons who cannot work by reason of disability or invalidity are not eligible for this scheme as they are not engaged in full-time remunerative employment as an employee. However, once FIS has been granted, a claimant can claim illness benefit for up to 6 weeks, and it does not affect their entitlement. If a person is absent from work through illness for more than 6 weeks, payment of FIS is suspended until they return to work or until their FIS award period expires. Similarly persons in receipt of carer’s allowance are not eligible for FIS as they do not fulfil the employment condition but instead provide full time care and attention for another person or persons. I have no plans to provide for the overlapping of these payments with FIS.
I established an Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare, to recommend cost-effective solutions as to how employment disincentives can be improved and better poverty outcomes can be achieved, particularly child poverty outcomes. The Group is currently considering in-work supports and the interaction of the tax and social welfare systems, and I look forward to receiving the final report and subsequent public discussion of its recommendations.
