Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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346. To ask the Minister for Social Protection his Department's position in relation to the three day waiting period from the date of the first application of jobseeker's benefit, in which no moneys are back dated when the application is processed; if he has future plans to backdate applications from the original application date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37576/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Waiting days have been a long standing feature of the jobseeker’s schemes and are a feature of similar social security schemes in many countries. The application of a three-day waiting period avoids the disproportionately high administrative costs involved in processing large numbers of claims of a very short duration. The waiting day rule is not applied in every case. For instance, a “period of interruption of employment” exists where a person is unemployed or sick for any three days (consecutive or not) within six days. Where a person is subject to intermittent spells of unemployment it would clearly be unreasonable to impose the three waiting days for each such claim.

Accordingly legislation enables, by means of a "linking rule", the aggregation of spells of unemployment so that the waiting period is confined to the first three days of the aggregate period of interruption of employment. Specifically, this linking rule provides that any two such periods of unemployment not separated by more than 26 weeks are treated as one such period. Consequently, where a person makes a repeat claim for jobseeker’s benefit within 26 weeks of their previous claim, the repeat claim links to the earlier claim and no waiting days apply.

I would emphasise that people who need financial support are not left without such support during ‘waiting’ days. A person who has no other income may claim supplementary welfare allowance in respect of the days in question.

While schemes and procedures are under continuous review, I have no plans at present to change the waiting days rule in respect of the jobseeker’s schemes.