Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 28 September 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection Remit and Legislative Agenda: Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection

10:00 am

Photo of Catherine ArdaghCatherine Ardagh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A minor issue which has been raised time and again in my constituency clinics is the income threshold for the fuel allowance. Deputy Brady raised a separate issue relating to the fuel allowance. A small adjustment could be made to the threshold but it would be meaningful for people who are not eligible for the allowance. There are ancillary benefits in various areas around the county when someone is in receipt of the allowance. Certain HSE areas give home insulation grants to private homeowners. I would like to hear what the Minister has to say on it.

She and other colleagues have raised the issue of the retirement age and the lacuna whereby people who have worked all their lives must sign on for a year on foot of a stipulation in their employment contract that they have to retire at 65 years. Has the Department considered legislation to make that stipulation null and void and, for example, to apply a red hand rule to such a stipulation to make it less onerous on employers? Currently, an employer has to point out to the employees that they must retire at age 65 and then sign on. This should be considered given the proposed changes to the retirement age coming down the tracks. People seem quite shocked that they have to sign on when they retire. They do not mind but they cannot believe they have to do it. If they knew about it in advance, they might be able to plan for the few years they have to sign on. Many of them have worked all their lives and the idea of not working is strange to them.

I refer to stopgap payments. When people in receipt of a jobseeker's payment take up full employment, they will not be paid for, perhaps, a month and sometimes they are left without an income for that period. Discretionary payments were available in the past but they would not apply to them because they are not in a bad way. They are in a better position because they have taken up full-time employment but they have no income for a month. The Minister should examine this.

Will there be an increase in the old age pension? I fully agree with Senator Higgins regarding gender and pension inequality and she has been championing this issue since I first met her in the Seanad.

Has the Minister considered an increase in the hours people are permitted to work while receiving various supports from the Department, including FIS, in order that they are encouraged to work while still receiving State support?

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