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

As the Deputy will be aware, pay-related benefits are designed to reward people who have worked hard all their lives, paid their PRSI and contributed to the system. Under the current scheme, the basic rate for both jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit is the same at €220, which means that someone who never worked a day gets the same rate of payment as someone who has worked, for example, for 20 years and has contributed to the system by paying PRSI. The current system does not distinguish between the person who has contributed and the person who has not. That is not fair. Many other European countries have pay-related benefit systems. The pandemic unemployment benefit showed that a pay-related system can work. People received payments based on what their prior earnings were. Technology and the ability to get real time earnings data from Revenue made that possible. Under the draft proposals, people with a long work history would receive 60% of their previous income up to a cap of €450. The reality is that people enter into commitments based on their weekly earnings. If they suddenly lose their jobs, they face a cliff-edge drop in their income. Pay-related benefits are about softening the sudden income shock many workers face at some stage during their lifetimes. I saw it when I worked in a credit union. People who worked all their lives lost their jobs and suddenly could not pay their mortgages. They were in a terrible space. This would cushion that drop in income.

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