Written answers

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Department of Social Protection

Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility

Photo of Richard Boyd BarrettRichard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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87. To ask the Minister for Social Protection why those in receipt of carer's benefit while signing for credits are not entitled to jobseeker's benefit when their carer's position ends; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7758/16]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Carer's Leave Act 2001 allows employees to leave their employment temporarily to provide full-time care for someone in need of full-time care and attention. An employee is entitled to take carer’s leave of at least 13 weeks up to a maximum of 104 weeks. Carer's leave from employment is unpaid but the Carer’s Leave Act ensures that those who propose to avail of carer's leave will have their jobs kept open for them for the duration of the leave. An employee may be eligible for Carer's Benefit if they have enough PRSI contributions. If they do not qualify for Carer's Benefit they may qualify for Carer's Allowance, which is a means-tested payment.

The jobseeker's benefit scheme provides income support for people who lose work and who have the required number of social insurance contributions. The 2016 Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure on jobseeker’s benefit of €369 million.

It is a fundamental qualifying condition for the jobseeker’s benefit scheme that a person must be available for and genuinely seeking full-time work. The schemes also require that persons must be fully unemployed for at least four in any seven consecutive days. They must also satisfy social insurance contribution and substantial loss of employment conditionality.

A person is regarded as having sustained a substantial loss of employment if s/he has lost at least one day of insurable employment in any period of 6 days as an officer of the Minister may determine, provided his/her reckonable earnings or reckonable income are reduced as a consequence of the loss of employment.

The full scheme criteria are established in the Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act 2005, as amended and associated regulations. These provisions inform detailed scheme guidelines which are available, along with further information on the schemes, at . Each application for jobseeker’s benefit is assessed by one of the Department’s Deciding Officers on a case by case basis.

Where an individual does not have entitlement under jobseeker’s benefit, they may qualify for means tested jobseeker’s allowance. Where an individual does not have entitlement under jobseeker’s benefit or allowance, they may be eligible for the supplementary welfare allowance (SWA) scheme, which is considered the "safety net" within the overall social welfare system. The SWA scheme provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependants. The main purpose of the scheme is to provide immediate and flexible assistance for those in need who do not qualify for payment under other State schemes.

A person who is not satisfied with the outcome of their claim for a Department of Social Protection payment has the right to appeal against the decision to the independent social welfare appeals office.

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