John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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617. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection when jobseeker's allowance was extended to the self-employed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23588/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The 2018 Revised Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure this year on the jobseekers’ allowance (JA) scheme of €1.83 billion.

The JA scheme offers income support for people who have lost work and who are available for and genuinely seeking full-time employment. This scheme is a means tested payment which has always been available to all jobseekers including employees and those in self-employment.

A person may qualify for JA if their business ceases or if they are on low income as a result of a downturn in demand for their services. Where self-employed people satisfy the appropriate means test and any other specific qualifying conditions, they have eligibility in the same way as employees.

In assessing means from self-employment, income from the previous twelve months is used as an indicator of likely future earnings. Given the variety of self-employment situations, the means assessment procedures are applied in a flexible manner to ensure that any circumstances that would be likely to lead to a significant variation, either upward or downward, in the level of a person’s income from one year to the next are taken into consideration.

People who were previously self-employed and are now in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance have access to the full range of activation measures and supports available to other jobseeker’s allowance recipients. This includes referral to group information sessions, one to one interviews and subsequent caseworker support. It also includes access to training, temporary employment, work-experience and recruitment subsidy programmes.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.