Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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32. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she has carried out an analysis of the impact her changes to farm assist with respect to income disregards have had on farmers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50845/13]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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33. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will consider reversing the changes she made to farm assist in view of the fact that they have had a serious negative effect on the income levels of already struggling farming families; if she has carried out an analysis of the impact of the changes for those families; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50846/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 32 and 33 together.

The farm assist scheme is based on jobseeker’s allowance. It was introduced in 1999 to replace ‘Smallholders Unemployment Assistance’ for low income farmers, without the requirement to be available for and genuinely seeking work. Farm assist recipients retain all the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme such as retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes. Recent changes to the scheme have brought it into closer alignment with the jobseeker’s allowance scheme’s treatment of self-employed persons.

Farm assist is a flexible payment and any farmer experiencing lower levels of income or cash-flow issues can ask his/her local social welfare/Intreo office to review the level of means applying to their claim. The assessment of means for the purpose of qualifying for farm assist is designed to reflect the actual net income and looks at gross income, less any expenses necessarily incurred, from farming. Income and expenditure figures for the preceding year are generally used as an indicator of the expected position in the following year. However, account is taken of any exceptional circumstances so as to ensure that the assessment accurately reflects the current situation. In the case of new entrants or persons changing from one type of farming to another the assessment looks at all expected annual income and is based on normal output and costs appropriate to items such as normal stock levels, capacity, and market trends.

As part of the normal budget process, all potential budget measures, including any changes to the farm assist scheme are assessed in terms of the impact they would have if introduced. Since the introduction of the changes to the farm assist scheme over recent budgets, no formal analysis of the impact of these changes has been carried out. However, the scheme is kept under review. In addition, the Department regularly discusses the scheme with the Irish Farmers Association. There are no plans to change the current scheme criteria.