Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 April 2022
974. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Social Protection the cost of extending eligibility for the working family payment to self-employed persons who meet the current qualifying criteria; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19326/22]
View answerThe Working Family Payment (WFP) is an in-work support which provides an income top-up for employees on low earnings. The WFP is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid workers with child dependents, and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment. There are approximately 47,000 families with 103,000 children who are currently in receipt of the WFP. The estimated spend on the WFP in 2022 is €349 million.
To qualify for payment of WFP a person must be engaged as an employee in full time paid 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. The applicant must also have at least one qualified child who normally resides with them or is part of a family supported by them.
It is possible for the household of a self-employed person to receive a WFP payment where the spouse, civil partner or cohabitant of the self-employed persons meets the qualifying criteria.
My Department has several schemes available to self-employed individuals including:
- The Back to Work Family Dividend - which helps families to move from social welfare into employment, including self-employment, by retaining their qualified child increase for up to two years. There are currently 2,678 families in receipt of the dividend.
- The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme encourages people in receipt of certain social welfare payments to become self-employed. If you take part in the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme you can keep a percentage of your social welfare payment for up to 2 years.
- The Short-Term Enterprise Allowance gives support to people who have lost their job and want to start their own business.
It is not possible to estimate the cost of extending eligibility for WFP to the self-employed as there is no estimate of the number of self-employed persons who would might qualify. There are no plans to extend the WFP to the self-employed at this time. Any extension of the WFP to other categories of persons, such as the self-employed, would have to be considered in a budgetary context.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
