Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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35. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she has carried out an analysis on the impact her changes to farm assist with respect to income disregards have had on farmers; if she will reconsider the changes she has made; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4978/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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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. The 2015 Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure this year on the farm assist scheme of €88.7 million. All recipients of farm assist have benefitted from the Christmas Bonus paid last month and all recipients with children will also benefit 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.

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. The scheme is kept under ongoing review by my officials. There are no plans to change the current scheme criteria.