Social Welfare Schemes
Seanad Éireann — 2025-11-12
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John Cummins (FG), Waterford

I thank Senator Costello for raising this important matter, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Calleary.
Partial capacity benefit is a social welfare scheme that is open to people who are in receipt of invalidity pension or illness benefit for more than six months, and who have a reduced work capacity. The scheme allows them to work or return to employment or self-employment while retaining a portion of their previous payment. The personal rate of payment of partial capacity benefit is based on a medical assessment of a person's restriction regarding their capacity for work. After the medical assessment, if a person's disability is rated as moderate, severe or profound, their payment continues at 50%, 75% or 100% percent of their existing rate, respectively. If a person's disability is rated as mild, they will not be entitled to partial capacity benefit.
There are no restrictions on earnings from employment or the number of hours worked under the partial capacity benefit scheme. There is, however, a requirement under legislation that people must claim their entitlement within a specific period from the date on which the entitlement arises. In the case of partial capacity benefit, this is set out in section 241(2)(ba) of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, which sets out the position "where the claim is made before the person commences employment, in respect of any period more than 13 weeks before such commencement" or "where the claim is made after the person commences employment, in respect of any period more than 3 weeks after such commencement". There is a two-stage application process involved.
The applicant first notifies the Department of their intent to take up employment and applies for partial capacity benefit. The Department will determine whether the applicant is eligible, and if so, at what level the partial capacity benefit will be paid. Once that decision is made, the applicant must then confirm that they wish to proceed on that basis and confirm the date their employment is commencing. The partial capacity benefit team will then put the relevant payment in place. The purpose of this is to allow a person to make a claim for partial capacity benefit in advance of the intended date of commencement of employment. It is also to allow a person to plan and organise their finances and decide if they want to start work.
The three-week window allows for late applications. It enables a person to remain eligible for partial capacity benefit for three weeks after they start employment. However, the deciding officers may award partial capacity benefit outside of this application window in exceptional circumstances. An internal audit conducted in 2021 revealed that only one person who had applied for partial capacity benefit was outside this application window. I am pleased to say that the average length of time for the award of the partial capacity benefit claim is now under three weeks, which is well inside the targeted processing times for this support.
I thank the Senator for raising this important matter. I appreciate the points she made about the three-week timeframe but, as she will have seen from my response on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Calleary, the review conducted in 2021 shows that there was only one claim outside this window, and they can be looked at on an exceptional basis. If the Senator has any individual cases, I am sure the Minister would be willing to look at them.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2025-11-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:18+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-11-12