Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will review the condition for qualification for family income supplement that requires the applicant to work a minimum of 19 hours a week as due to companies choosing to employ staff on short working weeks means that those employees cannot earn sufficient income at work and at the same time cannot get any top up income from the State thereby leaving their families at greater risk of poverty; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [1180/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The family income supplement (FIS) payment provides income support for employees on low earnings with children. The payment is designed to preserve the financial incentive to take-up or remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might be marginally better off in employment than on 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.

The “hours worked” eligibility criteria has been reduced significantly since the introduction of the scheme in 1984. The requirement was initially set at 30 hours per week but was progressively reduced to 19 hours per week in 1996.

I have no immediate plans to make any significant changes to the qualifying criteria for FIS. Further reducing the “hours worked” requirement could only be decided on in a budgetary context. More generally, I recognise that creating jobs and tackling poverty are two of the key challenges that we face. It is essential that our tax and social protection systems play their part in addressing these issues and ensure that work is worthwhile. To this end, I established an Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare with the aim of harnessing expert opinion and experience in order to address a number of specific issues. These include making cost-effective proposals for improving employment incentives and achieving better poverty outcomes, particularly child poverty outcomes. In this regard the Group is currently examining the issue of working age supports, which includes consideration of in-work supports such as FIS.