Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)

Illness benefit is an income support payment for people of working age who are unable to work owing to illness and who satisfy certain social insurance conditions. Those who are in receipt of the personal rate of illness benefit may also be entitled to increases for dependent adults and qualified children. In addition, they may qualify for some secondary benefits such as smokeless fuel allowances, assistance under the supplementary welfare allowance and the medical card.

In recent years my Department has begun to change its focus from being concerned primarily with the passive payment of benefits to a situation where we also focus on ensuring social welfare recipients of working age are given opportunities and supports to participate in the labour market. It is a way of ensuring people are not disadvantaged and are supported back into the labour market.

For this reason, a number of supports are available for those on illness benefit and the other disability related payments, such as disability allowance and invalidity pension, to encourage participation in education, training and employment. These include the back to work allowance, which provides a financial cushion for those returning to work, and the back to education allowance, which provides second chance education for people. It is geared towards ensuring that people who want to go back to education or work are not disadvantaged and that they can move from one scheme to another.