Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of claimants of jobseeker's benefit who have been removed from benefit after the change to assessing their claims on a five day basis in July this year and the number projected to be removed when Sunday working will be assessed in April 2013; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54656/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker’s allowance schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative employment. It is a fundamental qualifying condition for these schemes that a person must be available for full-time work. Budget 2012 provided for a change in payment week for jobseeker’s benefit. Where a benefit recipient is working part-time or in casual employment their rate of benefit is calculated with reference to a 5 day, rather than a 6 day, week. The Budget also provided for the inclusion of Sunday working when calculating the amount of jobseeker’s benefit/allowance payable. The change to the calculation of jobseeker’s benefit was implemented in July 2012 and the inclusion of Sunday working will be implemented in February 2013.

The change to the calculation method for part-time or casual jobseeker’s benefit recipients does not, in general, act to remove persons from the scheme as the rule whereby a person must be fully unemployed for three days in any consecutive period of six days, known as the ‘3 in 6’ rule, is retained. However, under the Sunday working measure this rule will be changed to a ‘4 in 7’ basis. As a result persons currently working three days plus Sunday will no longer be entitled to benefit. It is estimated that some 800 people may lose entitlement in this context of having four days of work per week.