Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If people are going on work experience or are on a work placement programme, it is because they want to reskill and go into a different area. The rules around the jobseeker’s benefit are being transposed into the jobseeker’s pay-related benefit legislation. The conditions are the same. The aim is to help people to get back to work. If they cannot get another job in the area in which they once worked, the aim is to reskill and get back to work as quickly as possible. That is the point. It is about helping people and doing what is right for them. It is also about doing what they want and about their personal plan and buy-in; it is not about what somebody else decides they should try. It is about working out a particular personal plan.

Many people actually go back to work very quickly. The way the pay-related benefit will work is that the recipient will start off with a maximum of 60% or €450 for the first three months. Then the rate is reduced for the following three months, and it is reduced again for the three months thereafter. For the full nine months a person is on the pay-related benefit, he or she will always be on a higher rate than that of the existing jobseeker’s benefit. I am trying to ensure that people who suddenly lose their jobs, as we have seen and know about, are cushioned from the income drop. Many people have commitments or outgoings commensurate with their income. I have seen this myself. When I worked in a credit union, I used to see people sitting in front of me who had no jobs and who, when the crash came, suddenly realised what they would have to live on per week. The whole idea of the pay-related benefit is to cushion from a sudden drop in income where someone is unfortunate enough to lose his or her job. It is about helping people, and that is what we are trying to do to make the system better.