Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Partial capacity benefit is a scheme which allows a person with a reduced capacity to work to return to employment or self-employment and continue to receive a social welfare payment from my Department for a period of up to three years.  It is intended to act as a stepping stone payment to help a person with restricted capacity re-enter the labour market and establish an independent source of income.

Key features of the scheme include that participation is voluntary; there is no requirement that a person must undertake work that is of a "rehabilitative or therapeutic" nature; there is no restriction on the number of hours worked; there is no restriction on earnings; a person who participates in the PCB scheme may return to an illness benefit or invalidity pension payment if, for example, the employment ceases or if the person cannot continue to work; and that a person on PCB, with an underlying entitlement to invalidity pension, will retain his or her free travel pass for a period of five years.

The duration of time a person can be in receipt of partial capacity benefit is linked to the payment the person moved from, subject to a maximum of 156 weeks.  In the case of illness benefit, the maximum duration of the payment is 624 payment days and this duration also applies for the purposes of partial capacity benefit.

Until recently, people formerly in receipt of Illness benefit who completed their maximum allowed duration on partial capacity benefit were being automatically placed back on that payment once they had the 13 weeks of PRSI contributions required to requalify for illness benefit.  This was an administrative practice which was not in accordance with the legislation governing the scheme and I understand the Comptroller and Auditor General also drew attention to this fact.  The Department has, therefore, discontinued the practice.  While legally those who benefited from this practice would actually have been overpaid, I should make it clear that we are not pursuing any such overpayments.

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