Arthur Morgan (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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Question 55: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs his plans to revise and shorten the time period that people have to be in receipt of social welfare payments for before they can apply for a back to education allowance. [17561/06]

Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 79: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he intends to examine the proposal of reducing the 12 month time criteria that certain social welfare recipients, such as unemployed persons, single parents and people with disabilities, have to be in receipt of social welfare payments before they are deemed eligible to apply for the back to education allowance. [17556/06]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 55 and 79 together.

The back to education allowance is a second chance education opportunities programme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. The BTEA scheme benefits people who have difficulty finding employment because of a lack of education qualifications. In many cases, people who have not completed second level education are held back in their efforts to obtain employment because of this. The qualification period for people who wish to pursue second level education has remained at 6 months. The conditions for entitlement to the third level option of the back to education allowance scheme were revised by my predecessor with effect from 1 September 2004. From that date, the qualifying period was increased from 6 months to 15 months for new applicants intending to commence third level courses of study. As the Deputies are aware, I reduced the qualifying period for access to the third level option of the scheme to 12 months in the 2005 Budget. At this time, I also increased the annual cost of education allowance, paid to people on BTEA, from €254 to €400. These changes came into effect from 1 September 2005. Following an undertaking to the Dáil and the Social Affairs Committee, I further reduced the qualifying period for access to the third level option to 9 months for persons who are participating in the National Employment Action Plan (NEAP) process and where a FÁS Employment Services Officer recommends pursuance of a third level course of study as essential to the enhancement of the individual's employment prospects. This new condition also came into effect from 1 September 2005.

In addition to these improvements, in the last Budget I announced that time spent in receipt of supplementary welfare allowance can count towards the qualifying period for back to education allowance in circumstances where the person establishes an entitlement to a relevant social welfare payment prior to commencing an approved course of study. This new provision will come into effect from September 2006.

The requirement to be in receipt of a relevant social welfare payment for a minimum period of time has always been a feature of the back to education allowance scheme and is considered necessary in order to ensure that limited resources are targeted at those who are most in need of second chance education. The scheme is intended to assist people with a history of dependence on social welfare and is recognition of the special difficulties which such persons can face when attempting to equip themselves for the modern labour force. I am satisfied that, overall, the current arrangements ensure that my Department's back to education allowance scheme continues to support those people who are most distant from the labour market and whose need is greatest, but I will continue to keep the situation under review.