Martin Ferris (Kerry North, Sinn Fein)
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Question 146: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her views on whether the new PRSI requirements for jobseeker's benefit unfairly penalises young people who may have lost their first jobs because of the economic downturn. [3199/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In order to qualify for a social insurance payment, a person must fulfil all of the relevant conditions including the social insurance contribution conditions relating to the particular benefit being claimed. These contribution rules aim to preserve a balance between the level of contributions paid and the amount of benefits received, by ensuring that the claimants record of contributions is sufficient, both in terms of initial establishment of a right to a benefit and of consistency of payment of contributions over the person's working life.

Where a person will be drawing more heavily on the resources of the Social Insurance Fund, e.g. where a person is claiming a benefit over a longer-term, it is considered appropriate that the tests should be more stringent. Accordingly, jobseeker's benefit requires the claimant to have paid a minimum number of contributions since they first started working and also to demonstrate a recent attachment to the workforce by having a minimum number of contributions in a recent tax year. For long-term benefits, such as the state pension contributory, the person must have paid a more substantial minimum number of contributions (currently 260) and must also have a prescribed yearly average over their working lives.

In this context the Government considers it appropriate to look at some of the instances where people with a very limited or distant contribution record have been able to qualify for very significant benefits, regardless of their household income. One of these changes relates to entitlement to jobseeker's benefit. It had been the case that people who had paid just 52 contributions in total could qualify for jobseeker's benefit. This meant that young workers, including migrants who had only worked for a total of one year were entitled to claim jobseeker's payments for 12 months, without having to satisfy a means test.

This condition has been changed from the beginning of January 2009, with the number of required paid contributions being doubled to 104 for new claimants.

Another measure that has been introduced relates to the duration of jobseeker's benefit. It had been the case that people who had paid 260 or more PRSI contributions could receive jobseeker's benefit for up to 15 months. From 15 October, 2008, this has been limited to 12 months for existing claimants with less than six months duration on the scheme as well as for all new claimants. Where the claimant has paid less than 260 PRSI contributions, the maximum duration of jobseeker's benefit will be 9 months (instead of 12 months) for existing claimants who have been in receipt of benefit for less than three months and for all new claimants. These measures are d Another measure that has been introduced relates to the duration of jobseeker's benefit. It had been the case that people who had paid 260 or more PRSI contributions could receive jobseeker's benefit for up to 15 months. From 15 October, 2008, this has been limited to 12 months for existing claimants with less than six months duration on the scheme as well as for all new claimants. Where the claimant has paid less than 260 PRSI contributions, the maximum duration of jobseeker's benefit will be 9 months (instead of 12 months) for existing claimants who have been in receipt of benefit for less than three months and for all new claimants. These measures are designed to more closely align the contribution conditions for jobseeker's benefit to the level and duration of the benefit being provided.

However, it should be noted that people who are affected by these changes will be able to claim jobseeker's allowance or supplementary welfare allowance instead, if they have limited means. The maximum rate of these two schemes is paid at the same rate as jobseeker's benefit.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 148: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the work she has undertaken to review the conditions of the back to education scheme and the back to work enterprise allowance to allow social welfare claimants avail of these schemes within a few months of becoming unemployed. [3209/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There is a range of education and employment supports available to persons in receipt of welfare payments. These initiatives are designed to assist and facilitate people on social welfare payments to return to the active labour force, included in these measures is the back to work allowance and back to education allowance.

The back to education allowance (BTEA) is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to remove the barriers to participation in second and third level education. It encourages and facilitates people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. The scheme enables qualified people who have been getting a social welfare payment to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course.

To qualify for participation an applicant must be in receipt of a relevant social welfare payment and be at least 21 years of age prior to commencing an approved course of study. However, lone parents and persons in receipt of unemployment payments can qualify at 18 years of age provided they are out of formal education for at least 2 years. In general, an applicant must be in receipt of a relevant Social Welfare payment for 6 months if pursuing a second level course or 12 months if pursuing a third level course.

In addition, the qualifying period for access to the third level option has been reduced to 9 months for persons who are participating in the National Employment Action Plan (NEAP) process, 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. People who are awarded statutory redundancy may access the scheme immediately, provided an entitlement to a relevant social welfare payment is established prior to commencing an approved course of study. The requirement to be in receipt of a relevant social welfare payment for a minimum period has always been a feature of the BTEA scheme and is considered necessary to ensure that limited resources are directed at those most in need.

The back to work allowance (BTWA) scheme is designed to assist the long term unemployed, lone parents, people with disabilities and other social welfare recipients to return to work. There are two strands to the scheme, the back to work enterprise allowance for the self-employed and the back to work allowance for employees. The aim of the BTWA scheme is to assist and encourage the long term unemployed, lone parents, people with disabilities and other social welfare recipients to return to the active labour force. These allowances provide a monetary incentive for people who are long term dependant on social welfare payments to make the return to work financially attractive and viable.

To qualify for this allowance the application must be submitted in advance and the person must be in receipt of a qualifying payment for a specific length of time immediately prior to commencing employment. Participants receive a tapered percentage of their social welfare payment over a three year period for employees and a four year period for those who become self employed. Participants may also retain entitlement to certain other secondary benefits.

The current back to education and back to work schemes have been subject to review and modification over the years. The requirement to be in receipt of a relevant social welfare payment for a minimum period has always been a feature of the schemes. People who have been unemployed for a very short time are not the main focus of the schemes.

The operation of the schemes have been subject to review and modification over the years to ensure that they continue to assist those furthest from the labour market. The qualifying conditions will continue to be monitored in the context of the objectives of the schemes and the changing economic circumstances.

Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 149: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the steps her Department has taken to prevent the payment of rent allowance to non-registered landlords; the number of rent allowance payments that have ceased in the past three years as a result of a discovery that the landlord has not registered; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [3220/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered on behalf of the Department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive, provides for the payment of a rent supplement to assist eligible tenants who are unable to provide for their immediate accommodation needs from their own resources and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. Under the Residential Tenancies Act 2004, landlords are legally obliged to register tenancies with the Private Residential Tenancies Board (PRTB). The Department supports the requirement that tenancies facilitated by rent supplement should be registered with the PRTB and is working closely with the PRTB in ensuring that all rent supplemented tenancies comply with the statutory system of tenancy regulation and safeguards. To that end, the Department provides the PRTB with details of rent supplement payments to enable them identify tenancies that are not registered and to take any follow-up action necessary.

It is not a requirement of the rent supplement scheme that landlords must be registered with the PRTB before a rent supplement is paid to a tenant. Landlords are legally obliged to register tenancies with the PRTB within one month from the start date of a tenancy. To require the landlords of all rent supplemented tenants to be registered with the PRTB would therefore frequently have the effect of delaying payment of rent supplement.

In many cases, when a tenant's rent supplement application is being decided the tenancy will not have been registered by the landlord with the PRTB, as the establishment of the tenancy will be dependent on rent supplement being awarded. Furthermore, there are certain instances where a tenancy need not be registered with the PRTB, for example, in the case of renting a room in a house.

It is my view that rent supplemented tenancies which are liable for registration with the PRTB, should be so registered. I am satisfied that the arrangements I have outlined in relation to the exchange of data with the PRTB, contribute to ensuring that landlords whose tenants receive rent supplement comply with this statutory obligation.

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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Question 151: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of farmers who will be entitled to farm assist on foot of the changes in the disadvantaged areas scheme regarding the reduction of eligibility of farms from 45 to 34 hectares and the consequent income loss; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44048/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The Farm Assist scheme was introduced in the Social Welfare Act, 1999. The scheme was designed specially for farmers on low incomes.

It is not possible to estimate the number of farmers who may qualify for farm assist due to changes in the disadvantaged area scheme. However, it is open to any farmer to apply for farm assist and a decision will be given on his/her application. If a farmer is already getting farm assist and if his/her circumstances have changed, s/he may apply to have their claim reviewed.

The farm assist scheme is a practical response by the Department to the situation of low-income farmers and it represents a long-term safety net for them. It benefits farm families with children and also provides increased payments to farming couples without children and to single farmers on low income.

Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 154: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the various steps which arise in dealing with an application for jobseeker's assistance; and the normal timespan involved before payments are made. [3205/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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A person who wishes to claim Jobseeker's Allowance has to attend at their local Social Welfare Office. There are several conditions which must be met including that:

the person be of habitual residence in the State

s/he is available for full-time work

s/he is genuinely seeking work

s/he satisfies a means test.

If the person satisfies these conditions the amount of payment granted will also be informed by the spouse/partner's circumstances, family size and any means that the person may have.

In some cases the means test will be carried out in the Local Office while in others it may be necessary for a Social Welfare Inspector to carry out the assessment which may involve a home visit. This may impact on the timescale of the decision. In some cases delays arise where the person fails to supply all pertinent information in support of his/her application.

For jobseeker's allowance claims decided in December (the latest month for which such figures are available), the average processing time was 5 weeks.

Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)
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Question 155: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she will review the level of co-operation between her Department and the Department of Health and Children in relation to the operation and means testing of rent allowance to avoid the situation in which social welfare income is counted in the assessment of rent allowance. [3210/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Rent supplement is administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare service of the Health Service Executive as part of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation, whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source.

Rent supplement is normally calculated to ensure that a person, after the payment of rent, has an income equal to the rate of supplementary welfare allowance appropriate to family circumstances less a minimum contribution of €18, which recipients are required to pay from their own resources. Many recipients pay more than €18 because they are also required, subject to income disregards, to contribute any additional assessable means that they have over and above the appropriate basic supplementary welfare allowance rate, towards their accommodation costs.

Social welfare legislation provides that all income in cash is assessable for supplementary welfare allowance purposes. This includes income from social welfare payments. Some specific disregards of income are provided for in the legislation in respect of the means test for the rent supplement scheme to include pensioners aged over 65 years, carers, recipients of child benefit, guardian's payment, respite care grant and those engaged in rehabilitative employment. The assessment for rent supplement also provides for a gradual withdrawal of payment as hours of employment or earnings increase. In recent years improvements have been made to the means test to encourage eligible people to engage in employment without losing their entire rent supplement.

Since June 2007, where a person has additional income in excess of the standard weekly rate of supplementary welfare allowance, the first €75 of such additional income together with 25% of any additional income above €75 is disregarded for means assessment purposes. This ensures that those returning to work or participating in training schemes are better off as a result of taking up such an opportunity.

I am satisfied that the assessment of means for the purposes of the rent supplement scheme, provides an adequate short-term "safety net" within the overall social welfare system to ensure that people do not suffer hardship. I am also satisfied that the community welfare service is administering the supplementary welfare allowance scheme in accordance with the relevant statutory provisions.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)
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Question 159: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to transfer the operation of rent allowance from Health Service Executive community welfare officers to local authorities; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42432/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which includes rent supplement, is currently administered on behalf of the department by the community welfare division of the Health Service Executive.

There are no plans to transfer the administration of the rent supplement scheme to local authorities. However, the government has decided that certain functions of the Health Service Executive will transfer to the Department of Social and Family Affairs, including the administration of the supplementary welfare allowance scheme including rent supplement.

The purpose of the rent supplement scheme is to provide short-term income support to eligible people living in private rented accommodation whose means are insufficient to meet their accommodation costs and who do not have accommodation available to them from any other source. In recent years, a significant number of people have come to rely on rent supplement for extended periods. There are currently over 75,000 people in receipt of rent supplement of which over 31,000 are now getting a supplement for 18 months or more. For this reason, the scheme has to be viewed in the context of overall housing policy, particularly in the case of long-term claimants. In response to this situation the Rental Accommodation Scheme (RAS) was introduced in 2004 and is being implemented on a phased basis. RAS gives local authorities specific responsibility for meeting the longer-term housing needs of people receiving rent supplement for 18 months or more. Since 2005, over 18,000 rent supplement recipients have been transferred to RAS units and other social housing options. When fully implemented, it is expected that in excess of 30,000 rent supplement recipients will have transferred to the local authorities under RAS and other social housing schemes.

The Department continues to work closely with the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government in ensuring that RAS meets its objective of catering for those on long term rent supplementation while enabling rent supplement to return to its original role of a short-term income support.