Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
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360. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reasoning as to if a person who is in receipt of disability allowance and that person takes up a community employment scheme before 16 November 2022 that they will not be entitled to the one-off payment of €500, and someone who is currently on a community employment scheme who was originally on disability allowance will not get this one-off payment either; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56572/22]

Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance)
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398. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if persons who are in receipt of the disability allowance on a community employment scheme who started before 16 November 2022 will be issued with the one-off cost-of-living payment of €500 given that reports show that persons with a disability are the most vulnerable to poverty; and if the matter will be examined. [56543/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 360 and 398 together.

Budget 2023 has been designed to assist people with cost-of-living increases through a mix of lump sum payments, increases to weekly payment rates and an expansion of the Fuel Allowance scheme.

Community Employment is an active labour market programme designed to provide people with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis.

Participation on the scheme is part time - 19.5 hours per week. Participants can also work outside of the 19.5 hours that they participant on CE, income from this employment does not affect their CE payment rate.

The minimum rate of payment on a Community Employment scheme is €230.50. In addition, a participant may be eligible for payments in respect of any qualified dependent adult and children.

Community Employment participants are not eligible for the €500 disability lump sum.

As part of the measures announced in Budget 2023, Community Employment participants will see an increase of €17 being applied, increasing the minimum payment from €230.50 to €247.50 per week from January 2023.

In addition, weekly payments for qualified child dependents will increase by €2 to €50 for children aged 12 or over and to €40 for children aged up to 12.

A number of once off bonus payments were also announced in Budget 2023, which will benefit eligible Community Employment participants, including a once off payment of €400 for those in receipt of the Fuel Allowance. These are in addition to the Autumn Cost of Living double week payment, the double payment of Child Benefit in November and the Christmas double payment in December 2022.