Laura Bambrick

Good morning, David.

Okay, so there is a commitment in the programme for government that within this term of government, so over the next three and a half years, the Department of Social Protection will introduce a new payment called a working age payment.

So that has been decided.

What has not been decided is what that payment will look like.

So that is the consultation that's happening at the moment.

The department are proposing one form that this new payment could take.

And as you mentioned, the proposal is to replace the job seekers allowance and potentially also the work in family payment.

So listeners probably aren't as familiar with the work and family payment.

It was up to recently called the family income supplement.

And that's a payment that's made to working poor families.

So if you're a PAYE worker with children and your wage is below a set amount of money for your family size,

this payment will give you 60% of the difference between your wage and that threshold.

And that's currently paid to 56,000 families.

And the requirement on that is that you have to work at least 19 hours a week or 38 hours over the course of a fortnight.

Now, the other main payment that's being proposed that this new working age payment would replace is the job seekers allowance.

And that'd be more familiar to listeners.

Maybe some know it under its older name, unemployment assistance.

And people, when they think of people either have a job or they haven't a job, they're employed or they're unemployed.

But job seekers allowance is paid to people that have no work, but also people that have some work, they're working part time, but they're looking for and available for part time employment.

So the idea is that this working age payment would potentially replace the existing non-contributory means-tested job seekers allowance paid to people who are underemployed, the partial job seekers allowance, which is paid to people who are underemployed, part-time but looking for full-time hours, and the working family payment.