Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 337: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if she has examined the impact proposed changes to jobseeker's and illness benefit will have on the criteria for the back to education allowance; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43902/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The back to education allowance is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to encourage and facilitate people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the work force. The scheme is designed to enable people in receipt of social welfare payments to pursue an approved full-time education course, subject to fulfilling the qualifying conditions. The underlying objective is to raise education and skill levels among the long-term unemployed and those most distant from the labour market.

One of the conditions for the back to education allowance is that a person must be in receipt of a qualifying payment for a specified period immediately prior to commencing the relevant course.

For jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker's allowance, the specified period is 6 months (156 days) for 2nd level courses and 12 months (312 days) for 3rd level courses. In order to support the activation of the unemployed the specified waiting period for access to the third level option was reduced to nine months for participants in the National Employment Action Plan. There is no waiting period for an unemployed person who is awarded statutory redundancy and who has established entitlement to a social welfare payment. In relation to illness benefit, in order to qualify for the back to education allowance, a person has to be 2 years on illness benefit immediately prior to commencing an approved course.

The recent changes to the duration of the payment of jobseeker's benefit and illness benefit are necessary to control expenditure on these schemes by aligning the contribution conditions for these benefits more closely to the level and duration of the benefits being provided. The changes are designed to ensure a uniform, rationalised, approach across the short-term social insurance schemes.

The back to education scheme is subject to review on an ongoing basis to ensure that it meets its objectives. The relationship between the qualifying criteria for the BTEA and the revised conditions for receipt of illness and disability benefit will be reviewed as appropriate.

Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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Question 338: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number who have availed of the back-to-education allowance at second level and at third level subdivided into the number individually entitled because they received redundancy payments and entitled because they are in an NEAP area; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43904/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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The back to education scheme is a second chance education opportunity designed to remove the barriers to participation in second and third level education. It encourages and facilitates people on certain social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications and, therefore, their prospects of returning to the active work force. The objective of the scheme is to enhance the employability skills of vulnerable groups who are distant from the labour market.

The statistics on participation in the back to education scheme are collated and validated at the end April each year in order to get an overview for the full academic year. The full-year figure for 2006/2007 was 8,090 with 3,359 participating on the second level option and 4,731 availing of the third level option. This increased to 8,883 for 2007/2008 with 4,242 participants on the second level option and 4,641 participating in third level courses. This represents an increase of 9.8% in the number availing of the back to education allowance during this period. The figure in November 2008 is 9,796. This is the highest ever recorded and is expected to rise further in the coming months.

One of the conditions for the back to education allowance is that a person must be in receipt of a qualifying payment for a specified period immediately prior to commencing the relevant course. For jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker's allowance, the specified period is 6 months (156 days) for 2nd level courses and 12 months (312 days) for 3rd level courses. In order to support the activation of the unemployed the specified waiting period for access to the third level option was reduced to nine months for participants in the National Employment Action Plan. There is no waiting period for an unemployed person who is awarded statutory redundancy and who has established entitlement to a social welfare payment. According to the data currently available, of the 9,796 who are recorded as participating in the back to education allowance in November 2008, there are 113 who were awarded statutory redundancy and 75 who were referred earlier to the third level option as a result of their participation in the NEAP.

The figures for the 2008/2009 academic year will be validated and collated fully in April 2009 and more complete information will be available at that time.