Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As announced under the July jobs stimulus, the Department of Social Protection is developing a range of training and support measures in partnership with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to assist jobseekers whose jobs have been displaced by the Covid pandemic. Training measures include three main points: first, providing access to additional full-time and part-time education, including targeted short-term courses with more than 35,000 new education and training places for those unemployed; second, facilitating access to the back to education allowance to those displaced by the pandemic to return to education, including VTOS courses, which has been done by waiving the usual qualification period of three to nine months, as the Senator mentioned; and third, Government provision of almost €57 million in funding for the back to education allowance in 2020. This represents a considerable investment in supporting participants to acquire the necessary education and skills to re-enter the labour market. By the end of October 2020, approximately 6,000 students had received support through the back to education allowance.

The Department is also well-advanced in developing a new work placement and experience programme for those out of work for at least six months to provide them with the necessary workplace skills to compete in the labour market, helping to break the vicious cycle of "no job, no experience; no experience without a job" issue. It is intended that the programme will support mentoring to encourage jobseekers to expand their horizons and avail of new learning options that can help them grow into a new career.

If a person in receipt of the PUP wants to apply for the back to education allowance, they are required to transfer to a jobseeker's payment. The rate of the back to education allowance payment will be linked to their qualifying social welfare rate payment. Whereas the PUP is short term in nature and is scheduled to end in March 2021, the back to education allowance can provide longer-term income support, which can be provided for the duration of an education support. It is not optimal to refer people to education at PUP rates for full-time programmes that extend beyond the lifetime of the PUP, as this is a short-term payment for people who are expected to return to work once the restrictions are eased. Indeed, many persons who are in receipt of PUP will return to their previous employment, and many already have.

Where someone in receipt of jobseeker's payment or PUP wishes to pursue short-term or part-time study, they can continue to receive their payment, including PUP, while they continue to satisfy the conditions of that payment. Many options and supports are available to jobseekers wishing to pursue short-term or part-time training or education without a qualification period, and without affecting their existing jobseeker or PUP entitlements.

Finally, my Department offers a range of other employment and job search supports to jobseekers and employers through its Intreo service and public employment service.Further information is available at and in local Intreo centres.