Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 27 Jan 2000

Vol. 513 No. 2

Written Answers. - Social Welfare Benefits.

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin

Ceist:

20 Mrs. B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will reconsider the serious negative impact of the substantial loss of employment rule on the many part-time workers in marts in the west; and if he will give the same rights to these workers as previously given to retained firemen and dockers. [1917/00]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

The regulations governing the award of unemployment benefit provide that, amongst other things, a person must have sustained a substantial loss of employment in any period of six consecutive days to be eligible for payment. The regulations also provide that for a loss of employment to have been sustained, there must have been a reduction in earnings.

In accordance with these regulations, a claimant of unemployment benefit is regarded as having sustained a substantial loss of employment if he or she has lost at least one day of insurable employment from that which is deemed to be his or her normal level of employment, coupled with a loss of earnings.

Persons who are engaged in casual or systematic short-time employment and who wish to claim unemployment benefit are exempt from satisfying the substantial loss of employment condition for the receipt of unemployment benefit. I could not accept that the position of people working on a part-time basis in marts could be viewed as analogous to that of people classified as casual workers for the purposes of qualifying for unemployment benefit.

I should point out, however, that a person who fails to satisfy the substantial loss of employment condition for unemployment benefit may, subject to a means test, qualify for payment of unemployment assistance.

Michael Ring

Ceist:

21 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of persons who applied for farm assist in 1999 in each county; the number of these applications which were approved and paid benefit; the number of persons transferred from the smallholders assistance scheme to the farm assist scheme; the number of persons who received an increase in benefits; and the number of person who received a decrease in benefits after the changeover in each county in 1999. [1925/00]

Michael Ring

Ceist:

25 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the number of persons in receipt of farm assist in each of the months in 1999. [1924/00]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern)

I propose taking Questions Nos. 21 and 25 together.

The details requested by the Deputy, in so far as they are available, are set out in the following tables which I propose to have circulated in the Official Report. In some instances summary information only is available but arrangements will be made to have a county by county breakdown provided to the Deputy in those cases.

The farm assist scheme, which introduced the special arrangements for farmers on low incomes, was provided for in the Social Welfare Act, 1999, and came into operation with effect from 7 April 1999.

At the end of 1999 there were a total of 7,117 persons in receipt of farm assist with a further 303 claims still under investigation. Apart from these 753 claims were still in payment under the smallholders unemployment assistance scheme. These will be reviewed and transferred to farm assist as appropriate when existing applications have been dealt with.

I believe that the scheme has brought about a worthwhile improvement for low income farmers and particularly for those with children. The smallholders who have transferred to farm assist receive a weekly payment averaging £83.06, an increase of £8.64 on what they previously received. New applicants receive on average a weekly payment of £56.88.

The scheme clearly makes a valuable contribution to supporting those who are at the lower end of the farm income spectrum.

Statistics of Farm Assist

Table 1: Summary

Applications

New	Former Smallholders	Total
3,412	5,922	9,334

Payments at 31/12/99

New	Former Smallholders				Total
	RateIncreased	NoChange	RateDecreased
2,127	3,799	64	1,127	7,117

Table 2: Breakdown of Payments by County

County	NewApplications*	FormerSmallholders	Total
Carlow	25	28	53
Cavan	98	189	287
Clare	149	289	438
Cork	138	309	447
Donegal	275	732	1,007
Dublin	7	2	9
Galway	205	565	770
Kerry	155	531	686
Kildare	19	17	36
Kilkenny	51	27	78
Laois	25	43	68
Leitrim	84	139	223
Limerick	84	101	185
Longford	37	63	100
Louth	12	15	27
Mayo	219	1,009	1,228
Meath	38	19	57
Monaghan	82	257	339
Offaly	33	35	68
Roscommon	102	239	341
Sligo	86	157	243
Tipperary	90	80	170
Waterford	23	10	33
Westmeath	36	39	75
Wexford	36	73	109
Wicklow	18	22	40
Total	2,127	4,990	7,117

*New applications includes persons who transferred from schemes other than smallholders unemployment assistance i.e. disability, pre-retirement allowance and widow(er)s (non-contributory) pension.

Table 3: Farm Assist Recipients – monthly breakdown

Week Ending	No. of Recipients
31/5/99	2,639
26/6/99	3,568
31/7/99	5,165
28/8/99	5,937
25/9/99	6,519
30/10/99	6,841
27/11/99	6,961
31/12/99	7,117