Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The back to work allowance scheme is designed to assist the long-term unemployed, lone parents, people with disabilities and other social welfare recipients to return to work. The scheme is designed to support people who would not otherwise be able to return to the workforce for financial reasons. There are two strands to the scheme, the back to work allowance for people who take up employment and the back to work enterprise allowance for people who become self-employed.

To qualify for the back to work enterprise allowance, a person must set up a self-employment business that has been approved by a partnership company or one of the Department's facilitators and, in the case of a person on the live register, he or she must be in receipt of a jobseeker's payment for two years prior to commencing self-employment. Participants on the back to work enterprise allowance receive a tapered percentage of their social welfare payment over a four year period. Participants may also retain entitlement to certain other secondary benefits. On 20 February 2009, there were almost 7,730 participants availing of the back to work scheme, of whom 4,430 were participating in the self-employed option.

The operation of the scheme has been reviewed and modified over the years to ensure it continues to remain relevant to those needing its support. The position regarding accessing and retaining employment and self-employment has become more difficult over the past year. As the Deputy is aware, the Government is determined to ensure we do all we can to help people stay in work or get back to work as quickly as possible. The back to work allowance scheme is being monitored on an ongoing basis in this context.

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