Tony McLoughlin (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Among other things, this Bill will help promote the uptake of new employment and give increased support to lone parents to find work, while also helping to protect the Irish taxpayer from increased fraudulent social welfare claims in the future. The main purpose of the Bill, as detailed by the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, yesterday evening is, as section 6 outlines, to provide for the introduction of a back to work family dividend scheme, which was first announced in the 2015 budget. The back to work family dividend is designed to assist families in which jobseekers or lone parents are reliant on welfare in making the transition back to employment or into self-employment.

The new scheme will ensure that if one is currently in receipt of jobseeker's or the one-parent family allowance, one will now be able to retain the €29.80 qualified child allowance for each child for one full year. One can also retain half this payment for a second year when one returns to work. Therefore, over two years, a family with one child will receive additional support of €2,324 from this new scheme. Families with two children will receive €4,649, while families with three children will receive €6,973. Those who qualify for the scheme will be paid the equivalent of any increases for qualified children that were being paid on their jobseeker's or one-parent family payment for the first year in employment. Half of that amount will be paid for the second year. It is possible to combine time on a jobseeker's payment with time spent on education, training or employment schemes to meet the eligibility requirements. For example, the back to work family dividend can be paid concurrently with the family income supplement and this will not be taken into account in the means test for this supplement. This ensures that the new scheme will provide an additional incentive to families over and above any entitlement they may have from the family income supplement or similar schemes. Persons getting jobseeker's or one-parent family allowance are also entitled to keep their current medical card for three years after they return to work. This acts as a separate incentive for jobseekers to take up offers of employment because they will not lose the safety net of having a medical card and it also ensures that people accepting jobs will have income supports during the transition from unemployment to work.

Getting back into employment has the single biggest impact in terms of improving family incomes and the situation for their children. It is not acceptable, as was the case with the last few Governments, that people were encouraged to languish on the live register without being given real opportunities and real support for their attempts to find work, which will ultimately have so many benefits for their families' lives. The overall goal of this Bill is to make working in this country pay. Therefore, I am pleased to see that the Government has introduced this new scheme, which will make work more appealing for so many families. It will help to support many parents of young families and convince them that welfare is not a long-term solution to their lives.

Another important aspect of this new Social Welfare Bill is contained in section 7 of the Bill. This contains new provisions aimed at strengthening the current legislation surrounding authentication of a person's identity when presenting for payment of social welfare. Although this Government has introduced a wide variety of new legislation since 2011, which has sought to tackle, head on, the scourge of social welfare fraud, there are still cases of this type of fraud occurring on a daily basis throughout the State. Section 7, in particular, will introduce new requirements which will distinguish between people presenting for social welfare payments on their own behalf and a person who has been nominated to collect the payment on their behalf, making it clear for post office staff which is the case on these occasions and ultimately providing greater clarity for all involved. Section 7 also introduces new provisions which will allow the Department for Social Protection to administer payments to certain vulnerable groups, such as the homeless, who may have difficulty retaining identity documentation. Section 7 also allows for the recording and retention of any information and documentation supplied for identification purposes at post offices, which can be used as evidence by its staff, if appropriate, in cases of impersonation and welfare fraud. This new provision in particular will be a vital new measure, which will be beneficial in the fight against those who seek to carry out welfare fraud.

This new Social Welfare Bill, which introduces the back to work family dividend scheme and new provisions to combat social welfare fraud, will get more people back to work in this country by making work more appealing while also reducing the amount of fraud occurring. It should be welcomed by all sides of this house.

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