Ms Inez Bailey:

The Department of Social Protection is aware of it. As part of the PEX interview, on the basis of which a case officer will take on new unemployed people, people are asked whether they have literacy or numeracy difficulties, and they will report it. However, there is not a sufficient response for unemployed people who have those low-level needs. They will not be able to benefit from a MOMENTUM project. When the MOMENTUM scheme was originally envisaged, programmes were targeted at people with low-level needs. Those programmes no longer exist. There are no labour market activation programmes targeted at those very low skilled people. What is available is the existing two-hours per week ETB service.

There is an increasing number of unemployed people in the profile of the adult literacy services participant. The bulk of the people in the literacy services are in the labour force. There are hardly any people aged over 65 in the adult literacy services. The average age of the 35,000 people in the service is 35 years, and they are either working or unemployed. The number who are unemployed is increasing, given that the Department of Social Protection is referring them to the service. However, it will take too long to address their needs. They need a vocational programme that has literacy and numeracy built in and caters for this group. Such a programme does not exist.