Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, who is unavailable.

The jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker's allowance schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative employment. It is a fundamental qualifying condition for these schemes that a person must be available for full-time work. Under the previous provisions, a person could, in general, qualify for a jobseeker's payment where he or she was unemployed for at least three days in any period of six consecutive days. However, Sundays were not counted for this purpose. This meant that where a person worked on a Sunday, this day was neither treated as a day of employment nor a day of unemployment for the qualification process. The changes introduced following budget 2012 and implemented on 20 February 2013 for jobseeker's allowance and 21 February 2013 for jobseeker's benefit bring the schemes into better alignment with the current operation of the labour market by counting Sundays in the determination of entitlement. Following these changes, a person is entitled to jobseeker's benefit or jobseeker's allowance where he or she is fully unemployed for at least four days in any period of seven consecutive days, inclusive of Sunday. Sunday work has become more usual, as demonstrated by the 2012 returns from social welfare local offices which show that some 18% of casual workers work Sunday in any given week.

As a consequence of the increasing incidence of Sunday working and given that Sunday work is frequently paid at premium rates, the exclusion or disregard of Sunday employment created significant anomalies in the jobseekers' schemes which have now been addressed: a person who was employed only on Sunday received the same unemployment payment as a fully unemployed person; a person working four days per week, including Sunday, qualified for payment, whereas a person working four days, excluding Sunday, did not; and in the case of jobseeker's allowance, the income from Sunday employment was included when assessing a person's average weekly means. However, as Sunday employment was ignored when calculating the weekly allowance payment, Sunday earnings were effectively disregarded on a week-to-week basis.

The change impacts on jobseeker customers where Sunday is either one of the days worked or the only day worked. Customers who work on a Sunday lose one day of payment in jobseeker's benefit or, in the case of jobseeker's allowance, they have means in respect of the day's employment deducted from their weekly payment. The measure has no effect where Sunday is not worked. The change simplifies the jobseekers' schemes, increases the fairness of the schemes and makes them more relevant to the modern labour market.

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