Mr. John McKeon:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to appear before it today for the discussion on the provision of activation supports. I am joined by my colleagues Niall Egan, who is a principal officer with responsibility for policy in respect of the provision of income supports for people of working age, and Eoin O'Sheaghda, who is our assistant principal officer working in our illness and disability policy division. The purpose of my opening statement is to provide the committee with an overview of the various activation services available to jobseekers and others. As usual, we are happy to take any questions at the conclusion of the statement.

The activation services provided by the Department of Social Protection can be categorised under three broad headings: employment services, employment programmes and employment supports. Employment services are personal advisory services such as those provided at our Intreo centres and those services funded by the Department and provided by local employment services and job clubs. These services include advice on job-search activities, personal support with the development of a personal progression plan, assistance in the development of curricula vitae and interview skills, the provision of guidance on education and training opportunities, and the provision of online job search tools. These services are, subject to resource capacity, available to all people regardless of their social welfare status. However, given the current level of unemployment, and in particular long-term and youth unemployment, resource capacity is prioritised to serve the needs of people who are unemployed and on the live register.

Apart from employment services, the Department provides a number of employment programmes to help jobseekers acquire and-or retain and maintain the currency of their employment skills. The programmes include temporary employment programmes such as community employment, Tús, the rural social scheme and Gateway; support for entry to self-employment through the back to work enterprise allowance; internships and work placements such as JobBridge and the work placement programme; and income maintenance support for return to education through the back-to-education allowance scheme.

In addition to employment services and programmes the Department operates a range of employment supports to assist jobseekers and employers. These include the JobsPlus subsidies for recruitment of long-term unemployed people; in-work income supports including family income supplement and income disregards for groups such as lone parents and carers; and a range of supports specifically for the recruitment and retention in employment of people with disabilities. These include EmployAbility, the wage subsidy scheme, the work equipment adaptation grant, the employee retention grant, the disability awareness scheme, and partial capacity benefit.

Expenditure by the Department on these activation services and supports is considerable and it is estimated that it will reach approximately €1.36 billion for 2014. Large numbers of participants are involved, for example, average budgeted participation in 2014 is just under 25,000 on community employment; just under 8,000 on Tús; just under 11,000 on the back to work allowance; just under 24,000 on the back-to-education allowance; and just under 7,000 on JobBridge.

Outside of the Department, the other main form of non-income activation support is through the provision of a range of training programmes by SOLAS and the education and training boards. These include programmes specifically tailored for young early school leavers; mainstream day and evening courses for unemployed people; and training specifically for people with disabilities provided through specialist training providers.

The Department of Education and Skills through the general education system also provides return to education options at second and third level that are availed of by unemployed people and people looking to re-enter the workforce. In the case of people of working age in receipt of a social welfare payment, income support in the form of the back-to-education allowance is available to sustain them for the duration of the course.

The Department of Education and Skills also provides through the Springboard programme a mechanism whereby unemployed graduates can undertake a third level conversion programme to acquire qualifications that are in demand in the labour market, for example, the conversion to IT programmes. Such graduates can avail of the back-to-education allowance scheme provided by the Department of Social Protection.

Eligibility for access to non-income activation services can be considered as falling into three categories. The first category is made up of people who are unemployed, not engaged in any employment activity and receiving a jobseekers welfare payment. Such people have access to the full range of employment services, subject in some cases to requirements in respect to the period of unemployment. The distinguishing feature of this group of people is that they declare themselves to be fully available for and genuinely seeking work and as such they are prioritised for, and are required to engage with, our activation services as part of the job search and availability conditions attaching to their welfare payment.

The second category is composed of persons in receipt of other working age welfare payments, for example, those related to disability, long-term illness, caring, casual-part-time working, and lone parenthood. In general, people in receipt of such payments do not declare themselves to be available for work. In the case of disability payments, recipients have declared themselves unfit for full-time work and have been assessed as such by the Department's medical assessors. Similarly, those people in receipt of carer's payments have self-declared that they are not available for full-time work. Accordingly, people in receipt of the payments mentioned are not required to engage with an activation support scheme as no job search or availability conditions are attached to their welfare payment. However, the Department is anxious that, in so far as resources allow, people in receipt of these payments should have access to supports from the Department so that they may have an opportunity, without obligation, to pursue employment options.

Accordingly they have access to the full range of supports, with the exception of Tús, JobsPlus and MOMENTUM or in other words, those payments or services which require a minimum duration of unemployment and where eligibility is limited to long-term recipients of jobseekers’ payments.

As for the jobseeker payment group, when participating on a scheme they receive a payment either equal to or higher than their prior welfare payment. It should in particular be noted that there is a number of specific activation services, such as the wage subsidy scheme and the EmployAbility service, provided to support people with disabilities access the labour market. We have set these out at appendix 1 to the opening statement. Recent changes to one-parent family payments also have introduced a category of transitional jobseeker payment specifically designed to address the employment services and activation needs of lone parents migrating from one-parent family payment status to jobseeker status as their children get older. Again, this is set out in appendix 2.

The third category is made up of people who are not in receipt, in their own name, of a working age welfare payment such as, for example, a person in respect of whom a spouse or partner, who is in receipt of a welfare payment, is claiming a qualified adult allowance. This group also includes people who, although they are seeking employment - for example are looking to re-enter the workforce - may not be entitled to a jobseeker payment because they do not satisfy insurance contribution or means conditions. For example, their means, based on the earnings of partners who are in employment, may exceed the threshold required to qualify for an income support payment. People in this category can register with our Intreo centres and with local employment services and job clubs and, subject to capacity and the priority which must be afforded to the other groups mentioned, will be offered access to the employment services provided at those centres. In terms of employment programmes and supports, the eligibility of this group is generally limited to access to SOLAS training for unemployed people, to the work placement programme and to the return-to-education options provided by the Department of Education and Skills. With the exception of some travel and meal allowances attached to the SOLAS and education and training board, ETB, programmes, there is no income support associated with participation on these programmes. However, it is important to note there are circumstances whereby people who are not in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment in their own names may, nevertheless, qualify for the full range of services and supports. For example, a person who is a qualified adult dependant on another’s jobseeker’s allowance claim may choose instead to claim jobseeker’s allowance in his or her own right and this is known as claim-splitting. In splitting the claim, the person concerned becomes subject to the job search and availability conditions attaching to his or her welfare payment but gains access to all employment supports on the same basis as other wholly unemployed claimants. Similarly, people with a prior history of social insurance contributions may be eligible to sign on for what are known as credited social welfare contributions or credits. People signing for credits, although not receiving a cash payment, are eligible to participate in a number of additional schemes, including JobBridge. Moreover, the spousal swap option is still available, certainly in respect of the back-to-education allowance scheme.

The principal rationale for the differential approach to treatment I have set out is that, in a period of high unemployment and given the detrimental impact of prolonged periods of unemployment at an individual, family and societal level, the key objective of activation policy has to be to provide a pathway back to employment for people with a work capacity who already are, or who will in the absence of support become, long-term unemployed. A further consideration is that State expenditure should be targeted towards those who, on the basis of an assessment of means, need support the most. These policy objectives prioritise the allocation of scarce resources in the first instance to those people in receipt of qualifying welfare payments, in particular those for whom there is a job-seeking conditionality where the State should, in line with the principle of rights and responsibilities, match this conditionality with the provision of services to support the jobseeker on the pathway back to employment. However the State also is mindful that other unemployed people could benefit from support in accessing the labour market and has committed, as part of the Pathways to Work programme, to develop proposals during 2014 as to how the Intreo activation process can be extended to jobseekers not in receipt of a welfare payment.

I hope I have set out adequately the current situation with regard to the provision of activation services by the Department of Social Protection and my colleagues and I will be happy to answer any questions.