John Lyons (Dublin North West, Labour)
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154. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of casual-part time employees in receipt of social welfare payments such as jobseeker's allowance, jobseeker's benefit and family income supplement, grouped by the 20 largest private sector employers and occupation type; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32340/13]

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 full-time employment. The Revised Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure on the jobseeker’s schemes of €3.66bn in 2013.

As of end May 2013 there were 87,943 casual or part-time workers on the schemes, of whom 33,354 were receipt of jobseeker benefit and 54,589 were in receipt of jobseeker allowance. The family income supplement or FIS payment is designed to provide income for employees on low earnings with families. The FIS payment preserves the incentive to remain in employment in circumstances where the employee might only be marginally better off than if he/she was unemployed and claiming other social welfare payments. The Revised Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure on FIS of nearly €230 million in 2013. There are currently just under 40,600 families benefiting from the FIS scheme.

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.

Administrative data in relation to the number of hours worked by FIS recipients is not available. However, the table below lists the twenty private sector employers with the largest number of employees who are in receipt of FIS as at end June 2013.

It is recognised that a changing labour market has resulted in a move away from the more traditional work patterns, with a consequent increase in the number of persons employed for less than a full week. This is an important policy issue for my Department but any changes to the current criteria could have significant cost implications. For that reason my Department will consider this issue very carefully. In tandem the Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare, which has already reported to me on a number of important policy areas, is now looking at the whole area of atypical work and I look forward to their recommendations on this issue.

The following tables set out the most recent analysis by my Department of private sector employers who employ persons also in receipt of jobseeker’s benefit and allowance, or family income supplement. The main employment types are in the retail and service sectors.

Casual Jobseeker’s Recipients by Private Sector Employers

FIS Recipients by Private Sector Employers