Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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85. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the progress made on the Programme for Government commitment to conduct a review of the means test disregards for farm assist with a view to better rewarding farmers who avail of the scheme for their enterprise. [4897/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Farm Assist is an important income support for farmers on low incomes, enabling them to continue to farm while also receiving a State income support. Under the scheme farmers can receive the equivalent of a jobseeker payment and also have access to secondary benefits and employment services. The 2022 Revised Estimate provides for expenditure of €53.9 million on the scheme which is currently supporting just over 4,900 farmers.

The means test for the Farm Assist scheme is more generous than that for the Jobseeker Allowance scheme. Payments received under the Rural Environmental Protection Scheme (REPS), the Agri-Environmental Options Scheme (AEOS), the National Parks and Wildlife Service Farm Plan Scheme (NPWS) and the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) attract a disregard of €2,540, with 50% of the balance assessed as means.

However, I am very conscious of the importance of sustaining farming activity and supporting farming households in rural communities. Accordingly, the Government made a commitment in the Programme for Government and in the Rural Development Policy 2021-2025 to review the means assessment disregards for the Farm Assist. As part of this review process it was recommended to provide for an extensive expansion to the list of Agri-Environmental schemes which will qualify towards the disregard of €2,540. I am delighted that the Social Welfare Act 2022, which enacts Budget 2022 measures, has extended the list of schemes to which this measure applies. Furthermore, this extension was originally due to take effect from October 2022 but will now be implemented from June. It will support the Government’s climate change agenda and act as an incentive to farmers to participate in the schemes.

I am considering the review in full and will arrange to finalise it in due course.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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86. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the progress made regarding the introduction of the parental bereavement benefit and leave given the availability of this scheme in Northern Ireland; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5327/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The death of a child is a tragedy and the difficulties that parents and families experience as a result cannot be over-stated. As I have previously advised the Deputy, I will be working with Minister O’Gorman to see how best we can do this.

Within the social welfare system, there are a number of supports for people who suffer a bereavement. In particular, there is an arrangement known as the six-weeks payment after death which allows for certain payments to continue to be made after a person dies.

If a person is in receipt of a primary social welfare payment which includes an increase for a qualified child and, tragically, that child dies, the qualified child payment will continue for six weeks after the child's death. In cases where an individual has been in receipt of One-Parent Family Payment and an increase for a qualified child, both payments will continue for six weeks after the death of that child.

In the case of Carer’s Allowance, payment continues to be made for twelve weeks after the death of the person who was being cared for, including where this was a child. Carer’s Benefit continues for six weeks. Domiciliary Care Allowance continues to be paid for three months after the death of the child being cared for.

Working Family Payment and the Back to Work Family Dividend also remain in payment for up to six weeks after the death of a qualifying child. Eligibility may continue beyond those six weeks if there are other children associated with the claim.

Under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, the Department may make an exceptional needs payment (ENP) to help meet essential, once-off expenditure which a person could not reasonably be expected to meet from their weekly income. An application can be made under the ENP scheme for assistance with funeral and burial expenses where there is an inability to pay these costs, in part or in full, by the family of the deceased person without causing hardship. In 2021, approximately 2,400 exceptional needs payments totalling €5.1 million were made in relation to funeral and burial costs.

In Budget 2020, €60,000 was allocated to the Irish Hospice Foundation, to carry out a research project into funeral poverty in Ireland, together with the wider economic impact of bereavement. This project is expected to be completed this Spring.