Vol. 510 No. 3
338 Ms Clune asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will include recipients of disability benefit in the back to education allowance scheme in view of the fact that further education may enable a person in receipt of disability benefit to retrain and enhance his or her employment potential; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22611/99]
To qualify for the back to education allowance, a person must, inter alia, be in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment for at least six months. One of the qualifying payments is disability allowance which is payable to people who are long-term incapacitated. People in receipt of disability benefit do not qualify for this allowance but there are arrangements in place under which a person may be permitted to undertake an education or training course while in receipt of disability benefit where this would assist in fitting them for another job. These arrangements are considered to be effective and there are no plans at present to extend the back to education allowance scheme to recipients of disability benefit generally.
