Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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119. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she plans changes to the partial capacity scheme; and if exemption arrangements will be put in place to allow persons to work part-time for rehabilitative or therapeutic purposes. [6175/16]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Partial capacity benefit (PCB) is a statutory scheme, introduced by the Department in 2012, which is open to people who currently are in receipt of illness benefit for a minimum of 6 months or are in receipt of invalidity pension.

Participation on the PCB scheme is voluntary – its objective is to support people in receipt of those payments who acknowledge that they may have capacity to undertake some level of employment and wish to return to the workplace.

PCB replaced the previous exemption arrangements where people on illness benefit or invalidity pension, if they wished to continue to receive their social welfare payment, would have to seek permission from the Department to work part-time for rehabilitative or therapeutic purposes.