John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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182. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the way in which jobseeker's benefit is now calculated with the inclusion of previous earnings rather than means testing for a person; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38099/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker’s allowance schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative full-time employment. The 2016 Estimates for my Department provide for expenditure this year on the jobseekers’ schemes of €2.8 billion.

Jobseeker’s allowance is a social assistance means tested payment. Jobseeker's benefit is a social insurance benefit. Social insurance benefits are not means tested payments but rather payments which are covered by pay related contributions. Jobseeker's benefit is paid for 9 months (234 days) for people with 260 or more PRSI contributions paid. It is paid for 6 months (156 days) for people with fewer than 260 PRSI contributions paid.

Since the extension of full social insurance cover to part-time workers from April 1991, a range of measures were introduced to the short-term illness and jobseeker’s benefit schemes in order to ensure that disincentives to employment were not created. In the absence of these measures, a situation would exist whereby many workers on low incomes would have access to weekly social welfare payments in excess of their income from employment. For instance, while someone earning €31.17 a week or more would have been liable for PRSI Class A contributions, the maximum personal rate of illness and jobseeker’s benefit in January 1993 was €70.60 a week, i.e. the social welfare benefits available could have been more than twice the level of income from employment for some people.

To overcome the potential disincentives involved, new arrangements were introduced from January 1993 to relate the rate of benefit payable to the level of the claimant’s earnings. These measures were regularly updated to keep pace with changes in benefit levels.

Jobseeker's Benefit rates are graduated according to an applicant’s earnings in the relevant tax year and reduced rates of jobseeker’s benefit are payable where the average reckonable weekly earnings are less than the prescribed amount. Under the current arrangements jobseeker’s benefit recipients with earnings of less than €300 per week in the relevant tax year – for claims in 2016, the relevant tax year is 2014 – get a personal rate ranging from €84.50 to €147.30, and reduced rates for qualified adults may also apply. Jobseeker’s benefit recipients with average earnings over €300 per week in the relevant tax year will receive a personal rate of €188 per week. Recipients of a graduated rate jobseeker's benefit payment can claim instead of jobseeker's benefit if it is more beneficial.