Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The social welfare system is primarily a contingency-based system, with entitlement based on defined contingencies, such as sickness, unemployment, old age or widowhood. Primary social welfare legislation provides that only one social welfare payment is payable at any one time. While it can happen that a person may experience more than one contingency at the same time - for example, an unemployed person may become sick - a general principle applies whereby even if a person experiences more than one of the contingencies at any one time, he or she only receives one of those payments. This principle is common to social security systems across the world.

In line with these provisions where a person in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance qualifies for illness benefit their jobseeker’s allowance claim is closed. If, upon expiry of the period in receipt of illness benefit, the person is unemployed he/she may submit a new claim for jobseeker’s allowance.