Social Welfare Benefits
Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-24
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Colm Brophy (FG), Dublin South-West

I thank Senator Tully for raising this matter relating to supports for jobseeker’s allowance customers who become ill or are hospitalised. It is a condition of the jobseeker’s allowance scheme that a person must be capable of work, available for full-time work and genuinely seeking work. Where a person cannot meet these scheme conditions due to illness or because they are in hospital, they may be entitled to support under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. The supplementary welfare allowance scheme, which is administered by the Department through the local community welfare service, is considered the safety net within the overall social welfare system in that it provides assistance to eligible people in the State whose means are insufficient to meet their needs and those of their dependants.
Supports provided under the scheme can consist of a basic weekly payment, a weekly or monthly supplement in respect of certain expenses, as well as additional needs payments. The basic supplementary welfare allowance provides immediate assistance for those in need who are awaiting the outcome of a claim or an appeal for a primary social welfare payment or do not qualify for a payment under other State schemes. A person who is temporarily ill or disabled and does not qualify for a payment under the Department’s illness-related schemes may qualify for basic supplementary welfare allowance, subject to certain criteria. This assistance is subject to the person having the right to reside and satisfying the habitual residence condition. Furthermore, the person must satisfy a means test. "Sick no benefit" operates as a category under the basic supplementary welfare allowance scheme and is generally used for those who are medically unfit for work but do not qualify for any of the Department’s illness-related schemes and have an income need. There are currently 3,085 customers in receipt of basic supplementary welfare allowance under the category of "sick no benefit". Basic supplementary welfare allowance is currently paid at a maximum personal rate of €252 per week. Where a person has an income need and wishes to be considered for a weekly payment under the basic supplementary welfare allowance scheme, they are currently required to make an application specifically for this payment. The claim process involves the receipt of an application, the gathering and verifying of information, the assessment of that information and a decision on the claim. This ensures the applications are fairly decided in accordance with legislation and guidelines specific to the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, while also allowing the community welfare officers to provide a speedy delivery of service to customers.
All customers have the right to apply for supplementary welfare allowance and have their applications processed in an appropriate manner. As the means test for supplementary welfare allowance is different from that which applies to the jobseeker’s allowance scheme, automatic transfer of customers between the two schemes is not possible or appropriate. Our community welfare officers have a great deal of experience in responding to all types of difficult situations and will be flexible in ensuring that a person is not left without the support they need.

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Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-24