Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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714. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a student (details supplied) is eligible for jobseeker’s allowance given that the course is designed to allow for flexible and blended learning to explicitly allow students to study and work simultaneously; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [42627/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Jobseekers Allowance is a means tested income support payment for people who are unable to obtain full time employment and satisfy the scheme’s statutory conditions. The revised estimated expenditure for the Jobseekers Allowance scheme in 2021 is approximately €1.64 billion.

Social welfare legislation provides that students who are attending a full-time course of study are not eligible for the Jobseeker's Allowance. A person must satisfy, amongst other things, the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking full-time work in order to be eligible for a Jobseekers payment.

In general, the level of commitment required to participate in a full-time course of education is not consistent with the jobseeker’s schemes requirement to be available for full-time employment and genuinely seeking such work. However, decisions are made based on the circumstances of each case.

I trust that this clarifies the position for the Deputy.