Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 January 2023
415. Deputy Ivana Bacik asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on the policy preventing access to the working family payment for persons who are self-employed; and if she has plans to broaden access to the payment. [3348/23]
View answerThe Working Family Payment is an in-work support which is designed to prevent in-work poverty for low paid employees with child dependents, and to offer a financial incentive to take-up employment. There are approximately 47,000 families with 102,000 children currently in receipt of the Working Family Payment. Estimated expenditure on the scheme in 2023 is €362 million.
To qualify for the Working Family Payment 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. A couple may combine their hours of employment to meet the qualification requirement. The applicant must also have at least one qualified child who normally resides with them or is part of a family supported by them. In addition, the person's income must be below the relevant threshold for their family size.
It is possible for the household of a self-employed person to receive Working Family Payment where the spouse, civil partner or cohabitant of the self-employed person is an employee who meets the qualifying criteria.
My Department has several schemes available to self-employed individuals including:
- The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme which encourages people in receipt of certain social welfare payments to become self-employed. If a person takes part in the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme they can keep a percentage of their 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.
- The Back to Work Family Dividend helps families to move from social welfare into employment or self-employment, by retaining their qualified child increase for up to two years.
There are no plans to extend the Working Family Payment to the self-employed at this time. Any such extension of the scheme could only be considered in the overall budgetary context.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
