Donna McGettigan (Clare, Sinn Fein)
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639. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if he will introduce a system for privately employed playschool workers who must sign on for social welfare payments each time they are temporarily unemployed for school holidays, to allow their claims to be suspended and reactivated, rather than them having to make a new claim each time which can involve delays in receiving payments, if he will consider allowing them to continue to receive family support payments during holidays; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [39013/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Privately employed playschool workers who are not paid outside of school term time and who apply for a social welfare payment are included as Educational Sector Workers (ESWs). ESWs who wish to avail of income support while temporarily laid-off during the school breaks can apply for a jobseeker’s payment. A jobseeker’s payment is paid for days of unemployment that the person is not being remunerated for by their employer, including receipt of any holiday pay entitlement during the school break.

The person applying must satisfy all the qualifying conditions to receive a payment. This includes completing the relevant claim application forms and providing supporting documentation in a timely manner while also being available for full-time work and genuinely seeking work at each school break.

Jobseeker claims are closed for all jobseekers, including ESWs, when a person returns to employment. However ESWs who have previously had a claim with my Department are issued with a repeat jobseeker’s application form and a holiday entitlement form in advance of the school holiday periods. This advance process facilitates an efficient service to these customers and allows for speedy processing of their claims when the period of unemployment actually arises.

Over the last number of years my Department has dedicated teams working solely on Education Sector Workers claims in order to streamline processes and minimise delays for people. As each claim is assessed individually, and each person's employment history, including previous claims is different, the payment due will also be different. The large volume of jobseeker's claims received at the school breaks means that some decisions on these claims may take a number of weeks to process. If any customer is in urgent financial need my Department’s Community Welfare Service may provide assistance while they wait for their claim to be processed.

Family support payments are generally paid to a person as an in work support while they are in employment and when a person becomes unemployed the appropriate payment for them is jobseekers. All schemes, including family support payments, have certain qualifying conditions and a person must satisfy those in order to qualify for a payment.

I trust this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.