James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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24. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to introduce flexibility and support in the social welfare system for persons with mental health difficulties. [2015/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Through the operation of the income support system managed by my Department and the health service managed by the HSE, the Government recognises the need for flexible and effective support for persons who encounter mental health difficulties. Recent research by the ESRI and the OECD has drawn attention to the prevalence of mental health conditions in the working-age population. Both an effective income support system and health services are key to addressing these difficulties but the research has also demonstrated that work can be an important factor in recovery, in particular for people with mental health issues. The Make Work Pay report for People with Disabilities, published last year, identified the need for flexibility in the income support and medical card system where a person with a disability takes up a job and options available if that job does not work out. This anxiety can be particularly pronounced amongst those with mental health issues, given the episodic nature of such conditions. One of the recommendations of the report was to put in place and promote a system for fast-track reinstatement of disability allowance, illness benefit or invalidity pension to people with disabilities who have returned to work, and have subsequently had to leave their job within one year.

As a first step in implementing this recommendation a fast-track return to disability allowance protocol has now been put in place. In addition to this initiative, people who are participating on the partial capacity benefit scheme may return to illness benefit or invalidity pension if they find that they cannot continue to work.

My Department also provides a wide range of work related supports for people with disabilities, including people with mental health difficulties that they or where appropriate their employers can access while in receipt of income support payments. These include the Wage Subsidy Scheme, the EmployAbility service and employment support grants for people with disabilities.

Most recently, my Department was a partner organisation in the Integrating Employment and Mental Health Service project, which ran between 2015 and 2017. The aim of this project was to demonstrate how existing mental health and supported employment (EmployAbility) services could fulfil the best practice Individual Placement and Support (IPS) model of supported employment for clients with mental health issues. An evaluation report is currently being finalised and this shows that overall, the project demonstrated good outcomes through improved integration between mental health services and employment support services. Following on from this work, my Department has been collaborating with the Department of Health and the Health Services Executive to consider how best to embed this learning within the social protection and the health systems.