John Gormley
Ceist:103 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the measures which can be taken against employers who avail of casual labour but do not appropriately co-operate with local employment exchanges. [13508/03]
Written Answers. - Social Welfare Payments.
My Department has special arrangements in place for the payment of unemployment benefit and unemployment assistance to customers who are categorised as casual workers. Customers are issued with dockets which they return to their local office on a weekly basis, detailing the days worked. Employers are requested to co-operate by marking the days worked on the docket and then signing and stamping it. The customer signs to state that the information is correct prior to returning the docket to the local branch office. Payment is then made based on the information on the docket.
My Department has to take into account the difficulty some customers can have in getting the dockets completed on a timely basis. Difficulties can arise where an employer has large numbers of casual or part time employees, where the customer has more than one employer or where the employer is situated a long distance from the place of casual employment. Where customers are having difficulty in getting a docket certified, they should immediately contact the staff in their local office. In order to assist customers where difficulties arise, employers can be asked to supply details of the days worked over a period for comparison with the days notified by the employee. Where an employer is unco-operative an investigating officer will call to ensure that the correct records are being kept.
Question No. 104 answered with Question No. 93.
John Bruton
Ceist:105 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will amend section 173 of the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 1993, which provides that a person shall not be entitled to supplementary welfare allowance in respect of any period during which they are engaged in full-time remunerative work, in view of the fact that people on low incomes should be encouraged to work and should not be artificially disqualified from doing so from provisions such as this. [13442/03]
Ciarán Cuffe
Ceist:108 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she has reviewed the recent report on rent supplement issued jointly by Comhairle and Threshold; her views on whether the criticisms of the payment in the report are valid; and if she will consider its key recommendation that rent supplement should be replaced by a new housing benefit. [13504/03]
Breeda Moynihan-Cronin
Ceist:110 Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans in train on foot of a report by groups (details supplied) which criticised the rent supplement scheme as actually working to worsen the situation of many vulnerable households; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13553/03]
Paul Nicholas Gogarty
Ceist:112 Mr. Gogarty asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if it is her Department's policy that rent supplement payments shall be directly reduced for lone parents if additional ancillary benefits are made available, such as childcare support. [13510/03]
John Bruton
Ceist:138 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to amend the provisions for rent support in view of the report on the rented sector which drew attention to the dis incentives to work that are present in this scheme at the present time. [13441/03]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 105, 108, 110, 112 and 138 together.
The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered by the health boards, provides for the payment of a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of rent or mortgage interest to any person in the State whose means are insufficient to meet his or her needs. In assessing a person's means for this purpose, all income, whether in cash or in kind, is taken into account although certain sources of income, for example, child benefit, can be disregarded in the means test. There is no provision for disregarding allowances paid towards the cost of child care and such payments are taken into account in assessing means for this purpose.
Rent and mortgage interest supplements are calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent or mortgage interest, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to his-her family circumstances, less a minimum contribution of €12 which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Many recipients pay more than €12 towards their rent because applicants are required to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate towards their rent. Up to €50 of additional weekly income gained from part-time employment or approved training courses is disregarded in the means test.
Under the legislation, supplementary welfare allowance is not normally payable to people in full time employment. However, anyone who has been unemployed for 12 months or more and who moves from a welfare payment to a full-time job may retain rent supplement on a tapered retention basis subject to a weekly household income limit of €317.43. Special arrangements are also in place which allow people on approved employment schemes such as back to work or community employment to retain part of their rent supplement. The period for which rent supplement may be retained has been extended to four years on a tapered basis, for example, 75% in year one, 50% in year two and 25% in years three and four and the upper limit of € 317.43 per month on the amount of supplement payable was abolished for people on these schemes.
As a result of these changes, many participants in the schemes now retain a substantial amount of their rent supplement. Rather than acting as a disincentive to work or training, the arrangements I have outlined are designed to encourage and assist people in the transition from reliance on welfare payments to full-time employment.
I am aware of the recent report on rent supplement in the private rented sector which was a joint publication by Comhairle and Threshold. One of the criticisms levelled at the rent sup plement scheme in the report is that it acts as a disincentive to work and training, particularly for families where relatively high levels of rent are payable. I do not accept that this is the case in view of disregards and various other features of the scheme which now apply. There are no plans to introduce a new housing benefit scheme but any further changes in the qualification criteria for receipt of rent supplement will be considered as part of the review of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme currently under way in my Department.