Social Welfare Payments

Tuesday, 29 September 2026

Ceisteanna (497, 498)

Peadar Tóibín

Ceist:

497. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of recipients who exited jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit in each of the past ten calendar years, by reason for the cessation of payment, including transfer to another social welfare scheme, entry into employment, failure to satisfy the qualifying conditions, voluntary closure of the claim, emigration, death, and any other recorded reason, in tabular form. [68105/26]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Peadar Tóibín

Ceist:

498. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of recipients of jobseeker's allowance and jobseeker's benefit, who transferred to another social welfare payment in each of the past ten calendar years; the scheme to which they transferred in each case (including disability allowance, invalidity pension, illness benefit, State Pension (Contributory), State Pension (Non-Contributory), one-parent family payment, carer's allowance, carer's benefit, working family payment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [68104/26]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Social Protection

I propose to take Questions Nos. 497 and 498 together.

Reasons for claim closure by scheme and calendar year for the period 2016-2025 are shown in the below tables. Note that claim closure reasons recorded may be self reported, and include cases where no reason is given. There may be more than one reason for a claim closure but only a single reason is recorded.

Aggregate closure reasons concerning failure to satisfy the qualifying conditions and voluntary closure of the claim are not available. 'Other' includes for example claims closed due the customer to signing or not picking up their payment, or scheme benefit exhausted. Details in respect of the schemes to which people moved under 'transfer to another social welfare payment' are not recorded.

Finally, care should be taken when interpreting the figures as recording behaviour may have changed over the years; for example the system administering jobseeker claims was changed in 2025.

Jobseeker's Pay Related Benefit

-	Transfer to another social welfare scheme	Entry into employment	Customer abroad	Customer deceased	Other	Total
2025	2,157	23,797	1,232	16	7,500	34,702

Jobseeker's Benefit (excluding Jobseeker's Benefit for the Self Employed)

-	Transfer to another social welfare scheme	Entry into employment	Customer abroad	Customer deceased	Other	Total
2016	9,067	69,112	1,552	34	45,627	125,392
2017	8,429	69,602	1,374	25	42,017	121,447
2018	8,153	70,889	1,371	20	40,507	120,940
2019	8,325	77,503	1,360	25	37,653	124,866
2020	13,447	69,509	979	22	44,926	128,883
2021	8,906	54,368	1,031	33	31,567	95,905
2022	13,076	65,431	2,707	54	44,376	125,644
2023	9,724	62,413	2,513	34	41,507	116,191
2024	9,344	73,554	2,675	37	44,724	130,334
2025	8,633	72,849	1,791	26	39,601	122,900

Jobseeker's Allowance

-	Transfer to another social welfare scheme	Entry into employment	Customer abroad	Customer deceased	Other	Total
2016	49,087	78,180	6,404	358	59,515	193,544
2017	43,526	72,018	5,089	310	52,909	173,852
2018	38,261	62,896	4,009	324	47,112	152,602
2019	33,212	54,419	3,109	258	39,441	130,439
2020	27,395	42,606	2,096	295	23,957	96,349
2021	18,899	46,957	2,358	297	19,459	87,970
2022	24,502	46,945	4,989	291	29,559	106,286
2023	24,040	42,872	6,763	233	34,369	108,277
2024	23,999	43,564	5,681	221	33,503	106,968
2025	19,408	45,262	4,320	209	32,923	102,122

Question No. 498 answered with Question No. 497.

Question No. 499 answered with Question No. 492.