Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the total saving to her Department on a full year basis of the changes to the farm assist scheme in budget 2012 and 2013; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56610/12]

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of farmers that will be affected by Budget 2013 changes to the farm assist scheme broken down by county; the total anticipated savings in the changes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [55963/12]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 351 and 361 together.

Support for farmers on low incomes is available through the farm assist scheme. This means-tested payment is similar to the jobseeker’s allowance scheme, on which it is based. The farm assist scheme was introduced in 1999 to replace ‘Smallholders Unemployment Assistance’ for low income farmers, without the requirement to be available for and genuinely seeking work.

In Budget 2013 two measures were announced, for implementation in April 2013, which will bring the farm assist scheme into closer alignment with the jobseeker’s allowance scheme’s treatment of self-employed persons by:

a. Increasing the amount of means from self-employment, which is assessed against the claimant from 85% to 100%; and

b. Discontinuing the means testing disregards for child dependents of claimants.

It is anticipated that these measures will achieve savings of €3.75 million in 2013, and €5 million in a full year, and will affect some 7,000 recipients. In relation to Budget 2012, the measures introduced in that Budget were anticipated to achieve savings of €5.15 million in a full year.

It is not possible to profile anticipated Budget 2013 savings on a county by county basis. However, it is expected that affected farm assist recipients will be broadly proportionate to the overall distribution of claimants, as set out in the following table:

Farm Assist Claimants – October, 2012