Social Welfare Act, 1993

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Unemployment assistance — disqualifications.

14.—(1) The Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion after section 140 (inserted by section 27 of the Act of 1992) of the following section:

“Disqualifications.

140A.—(1) A person shall not be entitled to receive unemployment assistance while attending a course of study, other than in such circumstances and subject to such conditions and for such periods as may be prescribed.

(2) In this section—

‘academic year’ means a period in which a course of study commences in one year and finishes in the next following year and includes term vacations;

‘a course of study’ means, subject to subsection (3), a full-time day course of study, instruction or training at an institution of education;

‘institution of education’ means—

(a) a school,

(b) a university,

(c) a college of a university,

(d) any institution which the Minister for Education has designated in regulations made pursuant to section 1 of the Higher Education Authority Act, 1971 , as an institution of higher education for the purposes of that Act,

(e) any institution to which the National Council for Education Awards Act, 1979 , applies,

(f) any institution established under the Regional Technical Colleges Act, 1992 ,

(g) any institution incorporated under the Dublin Institute of Technology Act, 1992 ,

(h) any institution which is not an institution for the purposes of paragraphs (a) to (g) and to which the Local Authorities (Higher Education Grants) Acts, 1968 to 1992 apply, or

(i) such other institution as may be prescribed.

(3) For the purposes of this section, a person shall be regarded, subject to regulations made under subsection (1), as attending a course of study—

(a) for the period of three months immediately following the completion or the leaving by that person of second level education or the completion of the Leaving Certificate Examination of the Department of Education, (whichever is the later),

(b) for the duration of an academic year, or

(c) for the period immediately following the completion of one academic year, other than the final academic year of a course of study, up to the commencement of the following academic year.”.

(2) Section 2 (1) (as amended by sections 15 and 27 of the Act of 1992) of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the insertion in paragraph (a) of the definition of “qualified child” after “is under the age of 18 years” of “or is of or over the age of 18 years and is regarded as attending a course of study within the meaning of section 140A (3) (a),”.

(3) Section 201 of the Principal Act is hereby amended by the substitution for subsection (1) of the following subsection:

“(1) A person shall not be entitled to receive supplementary welfare allowance while attending a course of study within the meaning of section 140A.”.