Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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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?

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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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.

Marie Sherlock (Labour)
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Any of us who has ever spent a period out of work know that days, weeks and months are vital in respect of the time needed to reskill or retrain. Those weeks and months should not be wasted. It is not good enough for the Minister of State to say that the PUP is going to expire in March and, therefore, people who are in receipt of the payment should not be able to access those State-provided training opportunities until March 2021. We need to do something in the here and now, and we must not waste any time. I acknowledge that those in receipt of the PUP who take up privately-funded training can continue to receive the PUP, but this issue is about people accessing State-provided training, and the supports that are linked to that. It is not good enough that the Department has not acknowledged the need to address the need for incentives for people currently in receipt of PUP to get into training in the here and now.

Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party)
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The Government is committed to supporting jobseekers, including those unemployed pre-Covid and those whose employment has been displaced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, in taking up education and training opportunities and to work with them to take up these options. We need to target supports at those who will most need them. Many of those in receipt of the PUP will return to their previous employment - and indeed many have already done so - as public health restrictions ease and the economy opens to varying degrees. At its peak, more than 600,000 people were in receipt of PUP in May 2020, and at its lowest, in October there were just over 205,000 in receipt PUP. As of yesterday, there were just over 351,000 in receipt of this income support. With this week's move from level 5 to level 3 restrictions and the partial opening up of the economy, a significant proportion of these people will exit the PUP scheme and return to employment in the coming weeks. It is, therefore, essential that we target support and resources at those whose jobs are permanently lost and those who have been receiving PUP for significant periods since last May.