Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE)
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522. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her views on whether participants in the back to work enterprise allowance (details supplied) should have to repay all of their payments on the basis that they did a few days of work on a self-employed basis during the period in which they were being paid the allowance, considering the fact that the operational guidelines clearly state customers are not allowed to enter into paid employment as an employee but do not mention any restriction on doing work on a self-employed basis. [17834/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) scheme offers support for people who are long term unemployed and who are interested in self-employment as a route to entering the labour market. As part of the Governments commitments under the Pathways to Work strategy a budget of €56.4m has been allocated for this scheme in 2022.

The BTWEA scheme aims to assist customers in alleviating risks for a new venture by allowing them to retain a proportion of their qualifying social welfare payment over two years; 100% in year 1 and 75% in year 2. All applications under the scheme require prior approval where the customer must engage with a Case officer/Job Coach of my Department and the assistance of the Local Development Company. During this process and throughout the payment of BTWEA scheme the customer is required to advise the Department of any change in their circumstances, including that of engaging in any form of employment.

Officials in my Department are reviewing the details of the specific case referred to by the Deputy including the determination of the overpayment.

I trust this clarifies the matter.