Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

All persons in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment are required to be seeking full-time work, a condition which a person must satisfy at all times. Customers referred to JobPath who are also working part time will have all activities, including meetings with their personal adviser, scheduled around their work commitments. The JobPath contractors are required to be flexible in the provision of the service in that respect. For those customers who take up seasonal work when engaged with JobPath, the service will offer in-work support and customers will not be required to attend meetings with their personal adviser until the employment ends. The customer effectively comes off JobPath for the period of their seasonal work and come back onto the scheme when they are finished.

In the case of jobseekers already in part-time or seasonal employment, the focus will be on opportunities to increase the level of employment in their current role, or look at possibilities in other areas, including training, which may provide a more sustainable income and for a move away from jobseeker payments.

On the number of clients who have gained employment, it will take time to accumulate a sufficient number of clients who have completed their engagement period with the service for complete and robust outcome data to be available. However, the most recent cohort report published on the Department’s website indicates that 19% of jobseekers who engaged with JobPath between July 2015 and March 2016 are now in full-time employment.

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