Fine Gael has promised a new working family payment to ensure that anybody who wants to work will be better off in a job than on welfare, Minister of State for Finance Simon Harris has announced.

Outlining his party’s plans to support working families, Mr Harris said the payment would allow some people to keep a portion of their jobseekers’ benefit when they return to work to ensure they were better off than if they remained on welfare.

Central to the plan is a new working family payment, which will ensure earnings of €11.75 an hour for recipients.

“People who want to work but find the transition too difficult will be helped by this scheme. We want to make sure the recovery leaves no one behind,” said the Minister.

Disincentives

He said that there were about 60,000 parents in the welfare system who had difficulty making the transition to work because of the disincentives involved. “We want to make sure the transition to work pays and the working family payment will achieve that objective.”

Mr Harris said the payment would cost €60 million a year and would be introduced from 2018.

He also pointed out that Fine Gael was promising to increase the minimum wage to €10.50 during the lifetime of the next government and would amend employers’ PRSI to mitigate the cost to them of the change in the minimum wage.

“Our fundamental objective is to make sure that work pays more than welfare. This is in stark contrast to the Fianna Fáil way, which is to ensure that people stay trapped on welfare,” said Mr Harris.