Vol. 507 No. 2
212 Mr. N. Ahern asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the situation of local authority rents for those on the back to work scheme; if the rents should be frozen for each of the years of the scheme or the special area allowance scheme for area partnership areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16708/99]
The back to work allowance, introduced in 1993, is designed to encourage the long-term unemployed to return to the active labour force. Some 28,000 persons currently avail of the scheme and are participating in employment or self-employment. A further 7,000 are participating on the back to work enterprise allowance, formerly known as the area allowance.
An important feature of both schemes is that the participants are allowed to retain secondary benefits for the duration of the schemes provided that the combined gross household income is less than £250 per week. This limit has applied since 1993 and the majority of participants retain entitlement for the duration of the schemes.
Differential rents is one of the secondary benefits which can be retained and local authorities were notified accordingly by the Department of the Environment and Local Government. The relevant circulars were issued by the Department of the Environment in July 1992 in relation to the area allowance and on March 1994 in relation to the back to work allowance.
