Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 3 May 2018
267. Deputy Willie Penrose asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the nature and type of benefits that are available to a person who works two full-time days constituting 16 hours of employment; the length of time the person would have to work to be in a position to secure benefits if they were to fall ill or to become unemployed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19530/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe jobseeker's benefit (JB) and jobseeker’s allowance (JA) schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative full-time employment. Jobseeker’s allowance is a means-tested social assistance payment whereas jobseeker’s benefit is a contribution based social insurance scheme. To qualify for JB a person must have at least 104 weeks qualifying PRSI contributions paid since they first started work.
Both the jobseeker’s benefit and the jobseeker’s allowance schemes provide significant support to individuals so that they can work up to 3 days a week and still retain access to a reduced jobseeker’s payment. The current days based system can provide significant income supports to jobseekers who are casually or part-time employed. For instance an individual can earn a little over €20,000 per year and still retain a small jobseeker's allowance payment, while the equivalent threshold for an individual with a qualified adult is almost €34,700 if they are both working.
In addition, to the two jobseeker’s schemes the back to work family dividend (BTWFD) scheme allows JA or JB recipients who have been jobseekers for 12 months or recipients of the one-parent family payment to retain their full increase for qualified children (IQC) for the first year in employment, tapering to 50% in the second year. To be eligible for the dividend there must not be any other claim in respect of the children concerned, other than child benefit.
My Department provides a comprehensive suite of income supports, including illness benefit (IB), invalidity pension (IP), and disability allowance (DA) for those who are unable to work due to an illness or disability. IB is paid if a person cannot work because they are sick or ill. To qualify for IB a person needs 104 paid PRSI contributions. IP is a weekly payment to people who cannot work because of a long-term illness or disability and are covered by social insurance. To qualify for IP a person must have at least 260 weeks qualifying PRSI contributions paid since they first started work. Disability allowance is a means tested payment available to people with a disability.
The combination of schemes available provides considerable income support for individuals who have part time employment by allowing them retain access to a social welfare payment.
Reflecting the impact of government policy, and the overall improvement in the labour market, long term unemployment continues to fall. The most recent data show that unemployment has fallen from a peak of 15% in 2012 to 5.9 % in April 2018.
