Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 February 2010
403 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she proposes to introduce full disability occupational injury payment or equivalent for those affected by pneumoconiosis whether or not they are deemed to be only partially affected by the illness; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9240/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraPneumoconiosis is a prescribed disease for the purpose of the Occupational Injuries scheme administered by my Department. The legislation governing the Occupational Injuries Scheme provides entitlement to benefit for persons suffering from certain prescribed diseases which are listed in the legislation and where that person has contracted that disease in the course of their employment.
Where a person has contracted one of the diseases listed in the legislation, benefits are payable if they were employed in an occupation which is specifically prescribed in relation to that disease or if they can show, to the satisfaction of the Chief Medical Advisor in the Department, that the disease was contracted through an employment not specifically prescribed in relation to that disease.
Employment under a contract of service is insurable for Occupational Injuries Benefit under the Social Welfare Acts. An insured person who contracts pneumoconiosis may qualify for disablement benefit under that scheme, in addition to disability benefit under the general social insurance scheme, subject to meeting the qualifying conditions. Medical assessments are undertaken in all such cases to determine the degree of disablement, which is calculated by comparison of the state of health of the applicant with a person of the same age and gender.
Persons claiming Occupational Injuries Benefit in cases of Pneumoconiosis are referred to Consultant Respiratory Physicians in the first instance for an examination and report. This examination consists of a clinical assessment and pulmonary function testing (PFT). Disablement benefit is awarded on the basis of the consultant's report, including the pulmonary function test result. The degree of disablement is expressed as a percentage of loss of faculty and the compensation payable varies accordingly.
Loss of faculty may be determined within a range of less than 1% to 100%, depending on the severity of the condition. A person must be assessed as having a minimum of 20% loss of faculty before they may be considered as being incapable of work due to their disablement. Where a person feels that his/her condition has deteriorated since the assessment was made under the scheme, it is open to that person to apply for a review of the percentage calculated.
There are no plans at this time to introduce changes to these arrangements.
404 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to introduce further improvements in respect of the level of payments under family income supplement in view of the likelihood of a greater demand arising from increased levels of unemployment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9241/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Family Income Supplement (or FIS) payment provides income support for employees on low earnings with children. The manner in which the value of the payment is calculated is designed to preserve the financial incentive to take-up or remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might be only marginally better off on social welfare payments.
Fundamental to the design of the FIS scheme is that a person must be engaged in insurable employment for a minimum number of hours — currently 38 hours per fortnight. A couple may combine their hours of employment to meet the qualification criteria.
The payment amount is based on a fixed proportion of the gap between the assessable income of the household and prescribed FIS income thresholds. As these thresholds are linked with the number of dependent children in a household, FIS provides an important policy instrument in reducing child poverty in working households as well as improving incentives to work.
An example of how FIS works is as follows: If a family has one parent working full-time and the other working 19 hours a week — both on the minimum wage, their net income from employment would be around €500 per week. If they have four children they would be entitled to a FIS payment of about €190 per week, as a top-up to their wages, giving them a combined net income from employment and FIS of about €690.
If only one parent in the same family was working, and they were in full-time employment at the minimum wage, their gross income from employment would be around €340 per week and their additional income from FIS would be about €280 per week. Their combined net income from employment and FIS would therefore be around €620 per week.
In both scenarios they would also be entitled to child benefit of €155.53 per week.
Considerable improvements have been made to FIS since the late 1990s. These have improved its effectiveness as an instrument of support for low-income employees. These changes include a change in how income is assessed (that is, from a gross to net basis) and, in recent years, the re-focusing of income thresholds to include additional gains for larger families. Partly as a result of this, and partly reflecting higher levels of take-up, spending on FIS has risen from €33 million in 1997 to an estimated €215 million in 2010.
Increases to FIS thresholds were already announced as part of the Budget 2010 package. These increases effectively compensate low-income households on FIS for the necessary reduction in child benefit rates. I do not propose any further significant changes to the qualifying criteria of FIS at this time.
405 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of applications for child benefit received in each of the past three years and to date in 2010; the numbers approved, rejected or pending; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9242/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraDue to staff action currently being taken, I regret that I am unable to provide the information sought by the Deputy.
406 Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of applications for back to education allowance received in each of the past three years and to date in 2010; the number approved, rejected or pending; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9243/10]
Amharc ar fhreagraParticipants in the back to education allowance (BTEA) scheme transfer from another social welfare payment. Annual statistics are collated by the Department for the number of participants on the basis of the relevant academic year. Statistics are not collated centrally on the number of applications received or the number who are refused entry to the scheme and, consequently, remain on their existing payment.
In the 2007/2008 academic year, there were 8,883 participants in the back to education allowance scheme and this rose to 11,646 in 2008/2009. At the end of December 2009, there were 20,808 participants and this number is unlikely to change significantly in the remainder of the 2009/2010 academic year. Changes to provide for earlier access to the scheme announced in the April 2009 supplementary budget would have contributed to the increased uptake in the 2009/2010 academic year.
The back to education allowance has an important role to play in enhancing the employability skills of jobseekers. The nature and structure of the scheme will continue to be monitored in the context of the objectives of the scheme and changes in the economic climate.
