Mr. John McKeon:

I thank members for the invitation to discuss the availability of activation services and other supports for unemployed people who are not on the live register. Members have received copies of my speaking note. I am joined by my colleagues, Mr. Niall Egan, principal officer with responsibility for jobseeker and lone-parent income support policy, and Mr. Tom Lehane, an assistant principal officer in our Dublin division who deals with jobseekers, employers and staff on a daily basis. He may be able to address particular issues that might arise during the discussion.

In speaking about activation policy, it is useful to distinguish between the activation process that applies to people receiving jobseeker payments and the broader concept of employment services and programmes available not only to registered jobseekers but also to other groups. The activation process relates to how the public employment service proactively engages with people who are unemployed, who declare themselves to be fully available for work and who are in receipt of a jobseeker payment. An essential element of this approach is the concept of "rights and responsibilities". People who are unemployed and seeking work have a right to receive an income support and assistance from the public employment services but they also have a responsibility, indeed an obligation, to engage with these services. Compulsory engagement with the Intreo service constitutes part of the conditionality for receipt of jobseeker payments. Registered jobseekers must attend for interview with a case officer if called on to do so and penalty rate reductions may be applied to their welfare payments if they fail to meet these obligations or to take up reasonable offers of supports such as training. In addition, their payment may be fully withdrawn if a deciding officer forms the view that their behaviour indicates they are not available for and actively seeking work.

Employment services relate primarily to the assistance Intreo gives to clients, primarily through case worker support and guidance, in the search for suitable work. As I have already indicated, engagement with these services is compulsory for recipients of jobseeker payments. The services are not, however, limited to people in receipt of jobseeker payments and are available to any client who goes to an Intreo office seeking assistance in finding work. Finally, the employment service can help clients to access a range of employment and training programmes administered either by the Department or through the Department of Education and Skills and its agencies.

Employment programmes provided directly or funded by the Department of Social Protection include schemes such as community employment, Tús, Gateway and JobBridge. In addition, the Department provides a range of employment incentives such as JobsPlus and in-work income supports such as family income supplement, FIS, and the back to work family dividend. Although participation on a small number of the employment programmes is limited to recipients of jobseeker payments, in general they are accessible to recipients of a wide range of welfare payments. Some of these programmes are also accessible to persons who are not in receipt of any welfare payment, though participation on such programmes will not entitle such clients to receive welfare payments or training allowances while participating.

The key objective of activation policy is to offer assistance to those most in need of support in securing work and achieving financial self-sufficiency, and on whom the State imposes an obligation to be genuinely available for and seeking work as a condition for receipt of payment. This policy objective was set in the context of the massive increase in the numbers of unemployed people on job-seekers payments that took place between 2007 and 2012. During this period, the live register rose from 160,000 to 450,000. In that context, it was necessary to prioritise scarce resources in respect of those in receipt of a qualifying welfare payment whose payment was conditional on engaging, if and as requested, with the public employment service. Accordingly, activation services by the Department are focused in the first instance on this cohort of unemployed people. Notwithstanding the focus of activation policy on unemployed people in receipt of jobseeker payments, many services are available, as I have said, to people who are in receipt of other, or no, social welfare payments. It may be useful to outline the situation in respect of two of the main groups involved.

As regards recipients of disability allowance, the current policy in respect of people with disabilities who present at an Intreo centre requesting employment services is that they are to be referred immediately to a caseworker within Intreo, at the local employment service, LES, or at one of the EmployAbility service providers funded by the Department of Social Protection. For such persons in receipt of disability or illness support payments, engagement with the Intreo service is on a voluntary basis and is not a requirement for their payment. A caseworker working with a person with a disability can arrange access for that client to most of the range of services and programmes that are available to people on jobseeker payments. This includes access to programmes such as JobBridge, the back to education allowance, and SOLAS training for unemployed people. Exceptions include the JobsPlus recruitment subsidy, the MOMENTUM training intervention and Tús, all of which were specifically designed for long-term recipients of jobseeker payments. In addition, however, the caseworker can arrange access to a range of other services and supports that are specific to people with disabilities and are not available to other jobseekers. In 2014, the Department spent €34 million on the provision of various employment supports, excluding the specialist training provided by SOLAS, for people with disabilities. These include EmployAbility, to which I have already referred, which is an open labour market initiative providing disabled people with supports to help them access the open labour market. The supported employment service provided by EmployAbility is an employment and recruitment service to assist people with a disability to secure and maintain a job in that market. This service provides a range of supports to employers and people with a disability through the use of job coaches. It is implemented by sponsor organisations that employ the job coaches to provide a range of supports tailored to the individual needs of a jobseeker. The ultimate objective is that the employee becomes independent of job coach support.

The wage subsidy scheme, WSS, is a demand-led programme, the purpose of which is to increase the number of people with disabilities participating in the open labour market. WSS provides financial incentives to employers, outside the public sector, to employ disabled people who work more than 21 hours per week. An employee must work a minimum of 21 hours per week up to a maximum of 39 hours per week. The rate of subsidy is €5.30 per hour and is based on the number of hours worked, giving a total annual subsidy available of €10,748 per annum based on a 39-hour week. This payment is not time-limited and is paid for the full period of employment of the individual concerned. This is significantly more attractive than the equivalent payment under JobsPlus for people in receipt of jobseeker payments under which the maximum amount payable is €5,000 per annum for a limit of two years. New applicants for WSS who are currently on disability allowance may also apply for a disability allowance disregard in conjunction with the WSS, provided the minimum 21 working hours per week WSS threshold is maintained. This disregard of €120 per week is double that of the equivalent jobseeker disregard and, in addition, the withdrawal or taper rate in also more attractive than that of the jobseeker payment.

There are a number of other employment supports for people with disabilities, including grants for workplace equipment adaptation.

Community employment, CE, eligibility requirements for people with disabilities are not as demanding as those for other jobseeker groups. The aim behind this is to encourage participation. Those on jobseeker payments must generally be aged over 25 and in receipt of a payment for a year or more. A person in receipt of disability allowance who is aged 18 or over can be in receipt of their payment for one week and still be eligible for CE.

Apart from having access to the range of training programmes, other than Momentum, for unemployed people provided through SOLAS, people with disabilities also have access to a specialist training programme provision specific to their needs. The key additional features of that specialist vocational training, is that the programmes are generally of longer duration, have improved trainer-learner ratios and use specially qualified staff and specially adapted equipment. Overall, therefore, people with disabilities have access to a range of services comparable, and in most cases superior, to the range available to those on the live register. The principal difference in approach is that engagement with these services is entirely on a voluntary basis for people with disabilities.

I will turn now to recipients of the one-parent family payment, OFP. As with people with disabilities, the current situation in respect of those on lone-parent payments who present at a DSP office needing activation or intervention-type supports, is that they are referred to a caseworker within Intreo or at the LES. For persons in receipt of lone-parent payments, engagement with the Intreo service is on a voluntary basis; it is not a requirement for their payment. A case officer working with a lone parent can arrange access for that client to virtually the full range of services and programmes that are available to people on jobseeker payments, including the in-work income supports of FIS and the back to work family dividend. The only exceptions are JobsPlus, Momentum and Tús.

One-parent family payment eligibility has been recently restricted to lone parents whose youngest child is under seven years of age. For people who are not cohabiting with another adult and whose youngest child is aged between seven and 13 years, inclusive, the OPF payment has been replaced by the jobseeker’s transitional payment. This is a special arrangement under the jobseeker’s allowance, or JA, scheme that aims to support lone parents into the workforce while they have young children. This is known as the jobseeker's allowance transitional, JST, payment. The arrangements for JST recognise the need to promote engagement and incentivise work for this group of clients, while also acknowledging the child care issues for persons who are parenting alone. These lone parents will still have caring responsibilities for young children and, as a result, may not be able to meet all of the conditionality provisions that apply to the JA scheme, which currently require all JA recipients to be available for, and genuinely seeking, full-time work. To address their needs, the JST provides access to the jobseeker’s allowance payment, effectively with reduced conditionality. This means they are exempt from having to be available for and genuinely seeking full-time work and from the four-days-in-seven working rule. That allows this group of clients to receive income support continue, to work and/or take up employment, and receive access to employment supports from the Department in order to support them to become job ready.

At the same time, engagement with the Intreo service is a requirement for continued receipt of JST. The engagement, commencing with a group information session-----