Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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199. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason back to work enterprise allowance is not included as a qualifying scheme for the purpose of awarding back to work family dividend; if she will include the back to work enterprise allowance as a qualifying criterion for the back to work family dividend; if she will address the case of a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44105/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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In order to be eligible for the BTWFD a customer must be aged under 66, must be resident and employed (the employment or self-employment can commence up to four weeks of the claim/scheme ending) in the State, and have been in receipt of an IQC (or equivalent) while in receipt of one of the following payments:

1. Jobseeker’s Benefit (JB) or Jobseeker’s Allowance (JA) for at least 312 days – of which at least 156 days must have been in the last 12 months.

2. One-Parent Family Payment (OFP) of any duration.

3. Jobseeker’s Transition (JST) Payment of any duration.

4. Customers who left jobseekers’ or OFP to participate in the following programmes may be eligible if, as part of the programme, they were paid an equivalent to an IQC and they exit the programme to employment or self-employment (i.e. they received a qualified child increase as part of their payment on the scheme/programme); Community Employment, Tús, RSS, Gateway, JobBridge, Work Placement Programme, Education Training Board (ETB) courses including VEC (VTOS) courses or Back to Education Allowance.

In this case, the person concerned was in receipt of back to Work Enterprise Allowance which is not (i) a scheme or programme of employment or work experience, or (ii) a course of education, training or development. As a result, the person concerned did not have an entitlement to Back to Work Family Dividend payment.

At present, there are no plans to revise the eligibility criteria for Back to Work Family Dividend.

I trust that this clarified the matter for the Deputy.