Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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41. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if an analysis has been carried out of the impact on farm assist following the changes to income disregards; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48990/14]

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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42. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she proposes to reverse the changes she made to farm assist in relation to income disregards in view of the serious effects on the income levels of many farming families on low incomes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [48991/14]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 41 and 42 together.

This year the Department will spend approximately €91.6 million on the farm assist scheme benefitting around 9,900 farmers each week. The farm assist scheme provides support for farmers on low incomes and is similar to jobseeker’s allowance. Farm assist recipients retain the advantages of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme such as retention of secondary benefits and access to activation programmes.

All recipients of farm assist have benefitted from the Christmas Bonus paid this month and all recipients with children will also benefit next month from the increase in child benefit I announced in the Budget.

Changes introduced in Budgets 2012 and 2013 have brought farm assist 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 their 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 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.

The scheme will be kept under ongoing review by my officials and there are no plans to change the current scheme criteria.