Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 November 2016
46. Deputy Michael Harty asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will consider a change in application of the rules for those in receipt of social protection payments who work a limited number of hours per day, in particular breaking the working week into hours rather than days when calculating reduced social protection payments. [36335/16]
Amharc ar fhreagraI ask the Minister to consider a change in application of the rules for those in receipt of social protection payments who work a limited numbers of hours per day, in particular breaking the working week into hours rather than days when calculating reduced social protection payments for hours worked during the week.
Both the jobseeker's benefit and the jobseeker's allowance schemes provide significant support to individuals so that they can work up to three days a week and still retain access to a reduced jobseeker's payment. As of the end of September, there were approximately 59,000 jobseekers casually employed in this way.
Any changes to the current criteria, such as moving to an hours-based system could result in significant numbers of additional individuals qualifying for a payment with substantial associated cost implications for the Exchequer. There could also be a significant reduction in the number of people eligible if the number of hours allowed was set at a particular level. The current days-based system can provide significant income supports to jobseekers who are casually employed. While it is not commonly known, an individual can earn a little over €19,300 per year and still retain a small jobseeker's allowance payment while an individual with a qualified adult can earn up to €33,300 if they are both working and still claim jobseeker's allowance.
If there was a change from a days-based to an hours-based system, the design would have to take account of earnings. Furthermore, if an hours-based system were introduced, existing casual jobseekers could lose out if their current hours worked over three days exceeded the new hours threshold thereby creating a disincentive to work longer. In addition to the two jobseeker's schemes, my Department's main in-work support is the family income supplement, FIS, which targets families with children on low incomes and who work at least 19 hours per week. The payment effectively preserves the incentive to take up or remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might only be marginally better off than if she or he was claiming other social welfare payments.
Where a long-term unemployed jobseeker is offered employment of more than three days but less than 24 hours a week, they may be eligible for the part-time job incentive scheme. Under this scheme, they can receive a weekly payment of €119 per week if they are single or €193.90 if they have an adult dependent. The combination of jobseeker's schemes, FIS and the part-time job incentive scheme provides considerable income support for individuals who have part-time employment by allowing them retain access to a social welfare payment.
This question particularly relates to caring agencies which supply home care services and packages. Those caring agencies have difficulty in accessing staff to supply those services. It has been brought to my attention that if you take a notional week as 40 hours and a carer was allowed to work two hours per day for five days a week, rather than losing their payments for the five days, they would lose their payments for the ten hours. In other words, they would get three-quarters of their social welfare benefits and still be allowed to work as carers supplying an essential service to the community looking after people in their own communities. Making it easier for agencies to find carers would give those being cared for access to somebody they would know from their locality, allow carers to have greater self-esteem and contribute to society.
We definitely have a problem here and it will take between now and possibly the next budget to figure out a solution. Employers contact me all the time saying that they have staff and would like staff to work more hours but staff will not work more hours because of the way the social welfare rules work and because they would lose their payments. At the same time, there are people earning €19,300 per year and couples earning up to €33,000 who are claiming jobseeker's allowance. I do not think that is right either. There are lots of people working for salaries lower than that who do not qualify for jobseeker's allowance. We need to look at the rules between now and the next budget and see how we can get them right but as with any change to rules, you will have issues. If we did what Deputy Harty suggested, huge numbers of people who do not qualify for jobseeker's allowance would qualify for it and that would come with an unsustainable cost to the State. One thing that is not well known enough is the part-time job incentive scheme. Under this scheme, a long-term unemployed person who takes up part-time employment for less than 24 hours per week - it does not matter on which day they do it - can qualify for a weekly payment.
Only 460 people in the State currently avail of that and it is hours based not days based. I think the uptake is low because people and employers do not know about it.
