Mr. Robbert Lynch:

It is identified under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. It is effectively a discretionary payment by what is now called the community welfare officer. If a jobseeker receives an offer of employment to take up employment, they must sign off jobseeker's allowance because they are not available for work because they are taking up work. However, that person will not get paid until the end of the month or for two weeks and there is therefore a gap between the income the Department has given and the income that person will get from employment. The Department has recognised that that is a disincentive for people to take up work. Therefore a person can retain the medical card and there is a range of things he or she can do. When it comes to the reality of living from week to week, a person is relying on the income from the Department. It has said, therefore, that where a person takes up employment and there is gap of up to four weeks between signing off from a jobseeker's payment and entering work, it will be able to give that person his or her weekly social welfare payment for that period and that person does not have to pay it back.