Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss the Department of Social Protection's Pathways to Work strategy. This debate was requested prior to the summer recess. The idea is to provide a pathway back to work, education or training for people who, for the most part through no fault of their own, find themselves without work or find that their business has collapsed and are claiming jobseeker's allowance. The strategy, which was launched last year, was the blueprint for the largest set of reforms that our welfare services have ever experienced. It provided for the establishment of an integrated employment and income support service with an intensified work activation focus. The initial reforms concentrated on how we deliver services to the newly unemployed. The 50-point action plan was published in July this year and it sets out to maintain the momentum developed under the pathways strategy and to build on the progress we have made to date. It also has a particular focus on increasing and intensifying our level of engagement with the long-term unemployed. The best way to prevent long-term unemployment is get people who become unemployed back to work as quickly as possible.

Following years of job losses, I am delighted that there are several welcome signs of progress in the labour market. There was an annual increase of 33,800 in the year to June 2013 in the numbers at work. More than 20,000 went into full-time jobs and approximately 10,000 into part-time jobs. That is a positive development because often at the end of a recession the first sign of recovery in the labour market relates to part-time jobs. In addition, unemployment fell by 22,200 over the same period to 300,700 per the Central Statistics Office, continuing a downward trend that began at the start of 2012. By the end of June, the live register, which includes anybody who receives a jobseeker's payment such as part-time workers and those signing on for credit as jobseekers, had fallen to 415,300, from a peak of 466,000 in 2010. The unemployment rate, at 13.4%, is down from a peak of 15.1% in early 2012. When the banks and the construction sector crashed, the country fell off an employment cliff. We lost 250,000 jobs between 2008 and 2010 and this was one of the largest reductions in employment in any country. There are 21,000 fewer people on the live register this week than this time last year, which is a positive sign.

Despite these tentative signs of improvement, unemployment, particularly long-term unemployment, remains unacceptably high. As a society we should move towards an economic goal of full employment, which would mean the unemployment rate falling below 7% and then to 5% and under. Unemployment is also relatively concentrated in households where no adults are working. More than one fifth of the population under 60 years of age lives in such jobless households. Amazingly, the percentage of jobless households increased during the economic boom, indicating a structural problem that was never addressed. It may well be that during the boom, people were parked and almost seen as unemployable or were transferred to other payments such as disability and illness benefit and did not recommence employment. The major concern is that children in jobless households tend to have weaker outcomes than those in households where some or all the adults have significant work. As a society, it is something we must worry about. We need to ensure economic recovery does not leave behind people who are long-term unemployed and in jobless households.

Pathways to Work 2013 builds on the significant progress we made in implementing the reforms and delivering on the targets in Pathways to Work 2012. More than 20,000 people who were long-term unemployed at the start of 2012 have found employment. Approximately 700 staff in FÁS employment services and 1,000 staff in the community welfare service along with 300 other staff working on community employment and other schemes were transferred into the Department of Social Protection on time and within budget. The roll-out of the new Intreo model of operation integrating the relevant employment and payment services commenced in Sligo in October 2012.

A total of 12 Intreo offices have been opened to date and the OPW, which is our agent for the delivery of these offices, has promised that there will be a significant pick up in the conversion of offices. When clients visit an Intreo office, they first receive a public services card which has a biometric photograph, and they provide an electronic signature. The capacity for fraud, for example, where a claimant tries to claim in multiple offices is significantly reduced. We have, therefore, a solid proof of identity. When clients sign in, they are asked to sign a contract with the Department which outlines the service we will provide. We will treat them with dignity and respect and provide income support paid for by our taxpayers and, in return, they are expected to do everything we require to make them work ready. People sign that contract and it is discussed with them. They then attend a group engagement where we tell them about their services. We also profile the individual. We consider their educational attainment because we can predict how quickly they are likely to find a job. The higher the level of educational attainment, the faster they return to employment. They have to sign the social contract of rights and responsibilities. If people decide not to respond to that social obligation that they have to other citizens and taxpayers, we impose penalties. For example, we can reduce their social welfare payments.

If they fail to respond at all, we can suspend their payments for up to nine weeks.

The national internship scheme, JobBridge, was rolled out and is delivering a clear pathway to employment for many people, particularly in the 24 to 37 year old cohort. Over 20,000 people have participated in this scheme. Indecon’s review of the scheme indicated there is a progression rate to employment of over 60%. The feedback to me personally, particularly from small employers, is very positive. They have been strongly impressed by the quality and calibre of the people in the scheme. There is also positive feedback from interns on the experience they got on the scheme. Many of them were in college at the height of the boom but when they came out of college during the downturn they hit a brick wall getting employment opportunities.

The Momentum programme, a collaboration between my Department and the Department of Education and Skills, which aims to provide work-focused training to long-term unemployed people was developed and is operated by providers from the public and private sector. More than 4,000 people are now benefiting from this innovative programme. For example, people can avail of digital skills courses. I am hoping we will be able to continue this programme next year.

The number of places available on activation schemes such as community employment, Tús and JobBridge was increased by 10,000 as part of budget 2013. Tús started in July 2011 and now has 7,000 people on it. We have had tremendous co-operation in developing this from the local development networks across the country.

The Springboard programme has supported more than 10,000 unemployed people to re-skill for emerging employment opportunities. Pathways to Work 2013 seeks to maintain the momentum in the implementation of the original Pathways reforms, while introducing an increased focus on the long-term unemployed, in particular among those who became unemployed in the height of the crisis between 2008 and 2011. Many of these people are male who were employed in the construction industry. They worked with great energy, up at 7 o’clock in the morning and finishing at 10 o’clock at night. Many of them had to change employment fields completely.

Focusing on long-term unemployment, we will be profiling all clients on the live register, not just new claimants. This means there are 420,000 people to be profiled. We will be looking at their education, work experience, where they worked and what they earned. This will be a good predictor as to whether the person will find it easy or difficult to get another job. There will be 10,000 additional places on employment programmes this year, mainly for the long-term unemployed. We will be reserving 40% of training places for the long-term unemployed and reviewing the possible further contribution of the further education sector to this area.

We will ensure that work pays through reforms to housing support under the new housing assistance payment, as well as through continuing simplification and promotion of the in-work payments under the family income supplement in FIS. We have cleared the backlog of applications in this area. The Department pays just under €250 million in FIS to support people going back to work in low-paid work. In some cases they have too few work hours; in others, they may be on a low wage. We will be implementing the JobsPlus incentive for employers to recruit people who are long-term unemployed. Under this programme, if an employer takes someone on who was unemployed for more than one year, they get a cash payment of €300 per month for up to two years. If they take someone on who has been unemployed for two years or more, they get €400 a month cash back for every month they employ the person paid by electronic fund transfer the month after the person has worked. I inherited several supports for employers when I took office that spanned the Revenue Commissioners and my Department. From my commercial experience, I found them hard to understand. We have tried to make the JobsPlus programme as easy as possible. Employers and individuals can register for it. Essentially, it is about giving a long-term unemployed person a job. An employer, once registered for the scheme, will get the cash back at the end of the first month the person commenced working. We started this scheme in July. It generally takes three months before we first start seeing results so I look forward to feedback from Senators on this.

We will be monitoring and encouraging recruitment from the live register by client firms of the enterprise development agencies. This week alone there have been announcements of more than 600 new jobs. Obviously, some of these jobs will be filled by existing workers or new entrants into the labour market. We are doubling the number of caseworkers employed within the Department on activation duties to increase capacity to engage with live register clients, in particular long-term unemployed people, while also finalising proposals for contracting additional capacity for employment services for long-term unemployed people.

Measures reducing long-term unemployment will have spill-over benefits for jobless households. We also plan to take additional measures in this area. These include, for example, monitoring the migration of people from jobseeker to other welfare payments and reviewing, over a number of years, the capacity for work of long-term recipients of illness and disability payments. Two years ago, I introduced a partial capacity benefit. The Department will facilitate those who had a serious illness or disability to get back into work. In the current economic climate, they find it difficult to get back into the workplace. This benefit and the employability services concentrating on their abilities will assist those in such circumstances.

We are also considering activation interventions for lone parents and the partners or spouses of unemployed people. We will continue to work to identify the specific factors underlying the concentration of joblessness in particular households, and to bring forward further measures to address this problem. We have set detailed targets and have approximately 50 planned actions. When people have come back to me and asked if I can do something to make JobBridge or Tús more flexible, we have tried to listen and introduce a level of flexibility that meets the requirements of employers.

The reduction of 21,000 in the live register is a very positive development. The growth in employment of more than 33,000 is a very positive development. Were we in the United States, those would be taken as two key indicators of being on the road to recovery. That is why we see those figures almost every week, asking whether the number of people at work is going up. That is the key indicator. I am happy to say that slowly but progressively we are beginning to offer people who have been locked out of employment an opportunity to participate in the workforce. Since we took over community employment I have visited many of the community employment schemes around the country. Where people are on a placement for two years or more we are trying to ensure they emerge from that with an educational qualification, such as FETAC level 5, so that no only are they contributing to the community but developing skills that will help them get back to work.