Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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According to the Department's records the person concerned is currently in receipt of family income supplement. He was initially awarded €22 per week from 13th March 08 but, on provision of further information, a revised decision was made on 11th June awarding €34 per week from 13th March 2008. This rate was put into payment from 19th June and arrears due were lodged to his bank account.

The back to work scheme provides a monetary incentive designed to make return to work financially attractive and viable. It is designed to support people who would not otherwise be able to return to the workforce for financial reasons. To qualify for this allowance the application must be submitted in advance of taking up employment.

The applicant must be in receipt of a qualifying payment for a specific length of time immediately prior to commencing employment.

The qualifying payments are as follows:

jobseeker's allowance/benefit for two years and aged over 23 years. Applicants must establish an entitlement to jobseeker's allowance.

one-parent family payment, disability allowance, blind person's pension, carer's allowance, farm assist, invalidity pension, unemployability supplement, pre-retirement allowance, widows/widowers non-contributory pension, deserted wife's benefit/allowance, and prisoners wife's allowance for at least 15 months (12 months if aged 50 or over).

illness benefit for at least 3 years.

In May 2008, the wife of the person concerned was in contact with the Department's local facilitator in relation to the Back to Work Allowance and the conditions were explained to her. According to the Department's record a claim for the allowance has not been received.

The back to education allowance (BTEA) is a second chance education opportunities scheme 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. It is paid at a standard weekly rate equivalent to the maximum rate of the relevant social welfare payment that qualifies the applicant for participation in the scheme. It essentially replaces their existing social welfare income and, in addition, an annual €500 cost of education allowance is payable.

To qualify for participation an applicant must, inter alia, be in receipt of a relevant social welfare payment and must be at least 21 years of age prior to commencing an approved course of study. People in receipt of disability related payments may access the scheme at 18 years of age. Similarly, lone parents and people in receipt of unemployment payments can qualify at 18 years of age provided they are out of formal education for at least 2 years. An applicant must also be in receipt of a relevant social welfare payment for at least six months, in the case of a person wishing to complete a second level course, or twelve months in the case of a person wishing to pursue a third level qualification. The twelve month requirement is reduced to nine in the case of people who wish to attend a third level course and who are participating in the National Employment Action plan.

A range of other supports are provided by locally based facilitators whose primary role is to assist long term unemployed and their families return to work, training or further education. The person concerned should contact his local Social Welfare Office to arrange to meet with a facilitator who will be able to advise him further on eligibility for participation in the back to work and back to education scheme and explore possible alternative supports through linkages with other agencies and organisations at local level.

Noel Coonan (Tipperary North, Fine Gael)
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Question 350: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to introduce compensation for people suffering health problems as a consequence of working in underground mines in the past; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28327/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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My Department currently operates the occupational injuries scheme which provides entitlement to benefit for persons suffering from certain prescribed diseases which are listed in the legislation and where that person has contracted that disease in the course of their employment.

Where a person has contracted one of the diseases listed in the legislation, benefits are payable if they were employed in an occupation which is specifically prescribed in relation to that disease. In addition, benefits may be payable if the claimant can show that the disease was contracted through an employment not specifically prescribed in relation to that disease. Employment under a contract of service as a miner is insurable for occupational injuries benefit under the Social Welfare Acts. Miners who are unable to work due to an incapacity arising from their employment may be entitled to occupational injury benefit for the first 26 weeks of their claim. If their incapacity extends beyond that period they may receive illness benefit or invalidity pension, subject to meeting the qualifying conditions for these payments.

Miners may also be entitled to disablement benefit under the occupational injuries scheme. Disablement benefit is a compensation payment specifically for those who suffer a loss of physical or mental faculty as a result of an accident at work or a disease prescribed in legislation that they contracted at work. Medical assessments are undertaken in all such cases to determine the degree of disablement, which is calculated by comparison of the state of health of the applicant with a person of the same age and gender.