Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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730. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if Covid-19 payments will be considered as eligible payments to proceed to back to education allowance. [15146/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The back to education allowance (BTEA) provides income support for jobseekers and others in receipt of certain social welfare payments that pursue courses of education at second or third level. The main focus of the BTEA is to assist qualifying applicants to improve their educational qualifications and improve their prospects of gaining employment.

It is expected that, during the course of the roadmap to recovery, as many people as possible in receipt of the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment will return to employment prior to the commencement of the 2020/21 academic year. At the point of commencement of a new course of education a person in receipt of this payment will be required to establish an entitlement to a jobseekers payment to qualify for the BTEA.

A potential BTEA customer will not be adversely affected by time spent in receipt of the Covid-19 pandemic unemployment payment when it comes to calculating the qualifying period for BTEA.

I trust this clarifies the matter.