Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 284: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if, as a consequence of budget 2012, recipients of deserted wife benefit will not be entitled to qualify for illness benefit should they become ill and unable to work, even if they have made the required number of contributions to qualify for illness benefit; if she will review this decision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2306/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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1The social welfare system is primarily a contingency-based system, with entitlement based on defined contingencies, such as sickness, unemployment, old age or widowhood. Primary social welfare legislation provides that only one social welfare payment is payable at any one time. While it can happen that a person may experience more than one contingency at the same time - for example, an unemployed person may become sick - a general principle applies whereby even if a person experiences more than one of the contingencies at any one time, he or she only receives one of those payments. This principle is common to social security systems across the world.

Existing legislation provided that regulations may be made to enable more than one of the payments to be paid concurrently and, where applied, it is usually in the context of short-term benefits. The 2011 Social Welfare Act provides for the discontinuation of the payment of half-rate Jobseeker's Benefit, Illness Benefit or Incapacity Supplement to persons in receipt of certain welfare payments, including Deserted Wife's Benefit.

Continuation of current overlapping payment arrangements, where they exist, re-allocates significant resources to certain groups at the expense of others. The change will have the effect of increasing the equity of the social welfare system.

The abolition of concurrent payments is confined to new applicants for Jobseeker's Benefit, Illness Benefit or Incapacity Supplement and will take effect from the end of January 2012.