Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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505. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he is aware that under the partial capacity benefit scheme, persons are automatically discontinued for a period of 13 weeks; his proposals to change this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13443/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Partial Capacity Benefit scheme was introduced by my department in 2012. Its aim is to address a previous limitation of the welfare system by explicitly recognising and responding to the reality that some people with disabilities do have a capacity to engage in open market employment while continuing to need some income support. The scheme is open to people who are in receipt of Illness Benefit (IB) for a minimum of six months, or are in receipt of Invalidity Pension (IP). The scheme is designed to incentivise such people to return to the workplace. PCB allows a person to return to work (if they have reduced capacity to work) and continue to receive a payment from the Department. There is no restriction on earnings or number of hours they can work and participation in the scheme is voluntary. A recipient of PCB can opt to revert to IB or IP if, for example, their employment ceases or they find they cannot continue to work.

Subject to the normal reviews, payment of PCB will continue as long as the person has an underlying entitlement to payment of IB or IP. Therefore, when a person in receipt of IB exhausts their entitlement the payment of PCB ceases, they may (in line with IB requalification conditions) requalify for PCB having accrued 13 additional relevant PRSI contributions.

There are no current plans to change the qualification conditions for PCB or the duration of payment.