Marie Sherlock (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for attending. This matter relates to the range of supports to encourage people who are out of work to take up training and skilling opportunities. The reason I raise is it I was approached by a woman a number of weeks ago who is a former Debenhams employee. She has spent many nights on the picket line and is reliant on social welfare supports. She has realised that she needs to take her fate into her own hands and reskill because she needs to take up employment in the new year. She is now reskilling to become a special needs assistant but she has had to stop receiving the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, PUP, and join the vocational training opportunities scheme, VTOS, which results in a drop in her income of €159 per week. That means that she must survive on just 53% of her former earnings. My main question concerns the incentives for those who are out of work to take up training opportunities. Under the PUP scheme, people who were previously earning €400 or more per week receive 88% of their previous earnings; if they were previously earning €300 to €399 per week, they receive a minimum of 75% of their previous earnings; and for those previously earning €250 to €299 per week, they receive 83% of their former earnings. It is not acceptable that someone who takes the initiative and undertakes training sees such a dramatic cut in their income support. I accept that the qualifying period for accessing VTOS payments has been removed this year, which is welcome, but it is not going to do anything for those seeing such a dramatic drop in their income. I acknowledge that there has been a significant expansion in the training opportunities available and that is welcome, but we need to examine how the social welfare system is structured. It is not good enough that it is simply about preventing poverty; it needs to serve as a springboard to work. What incentives have been put in place to get people retrained and reskilled so that they can take up jobs next year and beyond?