Pat Gallagher (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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238. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to solve the problems facing part-time and seasonal workers in trying to access social protection payments; her further plans to deal with the constraints surrounding the requirement to make 13 work contributions within the last 78 days of an existing claim, the income level of the subsidiary income threshold which mitigate against seasonal and part time workers’ rights; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40070/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The jobseeker's benefit (JB) and jobseeker’s allowance (JA) schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and who are available for and genuinely seeking full-time employment. Jobseeker’s allowance is a means tested social assistance payment whereas jobseeker’s benefit is a contribution based insurance scheme. The 2017 Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure this year on the jobseekers’ schemes of €2.5 billion.

It is important in the interests of equity and fairness that the conditions for receipt of a jobseekers payment apply to all recipients, including those who could be categorised as seasonal and part-time workers.

Where a person exhausts his or her entitlement to JB, he or she must pay 13 additional PRSI contributions after the last day of payment in order to requalify. The 13 contributions needed to re-qualify for JB can be paid in respect of full time employment, seasonal employment, part-time employment or casual employment. If a seasonal or a part time worker meets this requirement they may requalify for jobseeker’s benefit.

This requirement is in place to ensure the person has a reasonable connection with the labour market before he or she can requalify for payment. If a person does not re-qualify for jobseeker’s benefit or has used up his or her entitlement to jobseeker's benefit, then he or she might qualify for JA, subject to the means test and other conditions.

One of the conditions for receipt of JB is that the person must be unemployed for at least 4 days out of 7 in order to qualify. However, there are circumstances where it is possible for a person to be engaged in employment (either insurable or self-employment) on a given day and still satisfy the unemployment condition for that day. This type of employment is known as ‘subsidiary employment’. In order to be deemed “subsidiary”, the employment must be capable of being carried out outside the ordinary working hours of person’s “usual employment”. In addition, the employment is subject to a daily earnings limit of €12.70 per day unless the person has more than 117 contributions paid in the preceding three years from the date of their claim (in which case no earnings limit is applicable).

An Taoiseach, in his previous role as Minister for Social Protection, gave a commitment at Dáil report stage of the Social Welfare Bill 2016 that he would ask officials to examine the issue of jobseeker’s benefit and the treatment of part-time and seasonal workers, including those categorised as having subsidiary employment. As a result, my Department is currently finalising a report in relation to these issues.