Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 11: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the proposals she has to tackle the situation whereby people receiving family income supplement who suffer reduced hours at work and go down to one week on one week off must cancel their family income supplement payment before they can qualify for jobseeker's benefit for the week that they are off. [16977/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Family income supplement (FIS) is designed to provide income for employees on low earnings with families. This preserves the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might only be marginally better off than if he or she were unemployed and claiming other social welfare payments.

To qualify for payment of FIS a person must be engaged in full time insurable employment which is expected to last for at least 3 months and be working for a minimum of 38 hours per fortnight or 19 hours per week. A couple may combine their hours of employment to meet the qualification criteria. The applicant must also have at least one qualified child who normally resides with them or is supported by them. Furthermore the average family income must be below a specified amount which varies according to the number of qualified children in the family.

FIS is then calculated on the basis of 60% of the difference between the income limit for the family size and the net income of the person(s) raising the children. Net income for FIS purposes comprises of total family income less tax, employee PRSI, health contribution, income levy, superannuation contribution and pension levy.

Once the level of FIS payment is determined, it continues to be payable at that level for a period of 52 weeks provided that the person remains in employment. The rate of payment can be increased if an additional child is born in the course of the 52 weeks.

Current Social Welfare legislation provides that both FIS and Jobseekers Benefit cannot be paid to a person in respect of the same period. However, a person in receipt of FIS whose work pattern changes can collect Jobseekers Benefit instead of their FIS for weeks where they are out of work, if this is financially more beneficial to them. In this situation payment of FIS is suspended for the weeks where the person is not working and chooses to collect a financially more beneficial Jobseekers Benefit payment. The FIS payment resumes again for the weeks that the person is working. The person must continue to satisfy the condition of working at least 19 hours per week or 38 hours per fortnight to avail of this arrangement.

A person who works one week on and one week off, can collect FIS for the week that they are working and either Jobseekers Benefit or FIS, for the week that they are not working, whichever is the most financially beneficial. The underlying entitlement to FIS is not cancelled. Payment is suspended for the weeks that a person chooses to collect the Jobseekers Benefit payment.

I do not propose to change this arrangement as it benefits the families concerned.

Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 12: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the discussions she has had with social welfare branch managers about their needs in order to speed up the processing of jobseeker claims. [16995/09]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Department currently delivers a service from 62 branch offices which are operated by private individuals on a contract for service basis. Branch managers are responsible for recruiting their own staff. Each branch office reports to a parent local office of the Department. The main services provided from branch offices include jobseekers payment, one-parent family payment and an information service. However, branch office managers and their staff are not appointed as deciding officers, therefore all claims taken in branch offices are forwarded to the parent local office for decision by a deciding officer.

The additional number of people applying for jobseeker payments has placed increased pressure on all of the Department's offices and on branch offices. Staff in these offices are working extremely hard to process claims as quickly as possible.

Delays in processing branch office claims do not necessarily indicate difficulties in the branch office itself, as they may be attributable to difficulties being experienced in the parent local office.

Officials of the Department meet with the Branch Managers' Association on a periodic basis to discuss operational issues including staffing. At the most recent meeting held on 3 March, a number of process improvement initiatives that the Department has put in place in local and branch offices were discussed. Outline plans for further initiatives to ensure claims are processed as speedily as possible were also discussed. The branch managers were reminded that under the terms of their contract, they are required to ensure that staffing levels are adequate to allow for the efficient performance of the work of the office.

The branch manager's annual performance assessment, which is undertaken by the management from the parent local office, involves an evaluation of the staffing levels to ensure that service requirements are being met. Local office management were recently reminded of their obligations in this regard.

I fully appreciate that people claiming jobseekers benefit and allowance need to get access to financial and other supports as quickly as possible. Every effort is being made to ensure that applications made at Branch Offices are processed in a timely manner.