Pat Cox
Ceist:56 Mr. Cox asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he has any plans to modify the cut-off limits for social welfare recipients and their dependants in order to lessen the disincentives to taking up work.
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Cut-Off Limits.
I am very concerned with the possible effects of the social welfare system on incentives to take up employment. The matter is kept constantly under review in my Department, with a view to reducing such effects within the limits of available resources.
Family income supplement is available to low-paid workers with children to ensure that they are not worse off by taking up or remaining in low-paid employment. The income received by way of family income supplement is not taken into account by the health boards for medical card purposes. I have improved and extended the family income supplement scheme substantially over recent years. This year, as a result of improvements I introduced in the context of the budget, most families in receipt of FIS will be £12 per week better off. Over 7,000 families benefited under the FIS scheme in 1992.
In this year's budget, I provided a further incentive to take up employment by substantially raising the daily and weekly limits on the amount an individual can earn before there is a reduction in his or her unemployment assistance payment.
Measures are being taken to improve the incentives available to the long term unemployed and other social welfare groups under the new area-based strategy provided for in the Programme for Economic and Social Progress. Unemployed persons in the 12 designated pilot areas under the programme are allowed to take up self-employment while continuing to receive an allowance equivalent to their unemployment payments. This allowance will continue for up to 12 months. The person will also retain his or her secondary benefits during this period. People who opt for paid employment, while they will not receive an allowance on the same basis as the self-employed, will also retain their secondary benefits for 12 months subject to an upper income limit.
The cut-off limits to which the Deputy is referring apply to the free fuel allowance, the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and the medical card. Of these, only the free fuel allowance is automatically withdrawn once a social welfare recipient takes up employment. The back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance and the medical card are income related and need not be lost even if a person takes up employment, once the family income remains below the appropriate threshold. In addition, the spouse of a social welfare recipient can earn up to £55 per week from employment or self-employment without affecting the recipient's payment or entitlement to secondary benefits. Any changes to the existing arrangements would have expenditure implications and could be considered only in a budgetary context.