Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Question 47: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will make all working age schemes conditional on activation and, if not, which schemes will not be conditional on same. [6004/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Activation measures are designed to assist people in receipt of social welfare payments to move into employment and that they are facilitated in doing so by ensuring that they have relevant skills in a changing labour market. The process underway, wherein the Employment and Community Services elements of FÁS, as well as the Community Welfare Service, are being integrated into the Department, will enhance the effectiveness of activation interventions for customers of working age and deliver positive outcomes for them.

While, initially, people in receipt of unemployment payments will be the primary focus of enhanced activation measures within the new service, a number of specific changes have also been introduced to facilitate other customers of working age schemes in engaging with the labour market. The introduction of a partial capacity scheme is proposed as a policy response primarily aimed at addressing the gap in provision in relation to the variation in the capacity of recipients of a range of social insurance-based illness, disability and invalidity payments to engage in the active labour market.

In addition, legislative changes have been introduced relating to one parent families to alter the passive nature of current income maintenance arrangements. At present, one parent family payment can be paid in respect of children up to 18 years of age (22 if in ongoing education). From April 2011, the allowance will, with special arrangements for specific situations, only be paid until the youngest child reaches 14 years of age – with some transition arrangements for current recipients. Thereafter, the person may apply for a jobseeker's payment and will be subject to the conditionality associated with that payment.

The Department is aware of the inherent issues in the current contingency-based system. In this regard, it recently published a report on the feasibility of introducing a single social assistance payment for all people of working age. The introduction of a single social assistance payment would represent a fundamental overhaul of the assistance system and refocus it on participation with the overall objective of ensuring better outcomes for people and their families relying on income support and of reducing benefit dependency. The vision for a single payment is based on the objective that everyone is given or directed to the support and services they need in order to enter employment, or other training or educational opportunities. In return, provision of such relevant supports is matched by an expectation that they take up that support and that there is, therefore, a matching of rights and responsibilities.

The developments outlined above will be monitored and the outcomes will inform any extension of conditionality above and beyond what is currently in place or planned. Pending this, customers of schemes where conditionality is not currently a feature are, of course, free to avail of activation measures such as back-to-education and the back-to-work allowances where appropriate, and also to access advice and guidance available from facilitators or employment service officers.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 50: To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide details on the programme for Government commitment to expand eligibility for the back to education allowance including a timeframe and the intended form of expansion; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6001/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The focus of the back to education allowance (BTEA) is to assist those who are most marginalised and distant from the labour market to acquire the necessary education to improve their chances of becoming independent of the social welfare system. The BTEA scheme can offer participation in second and third level education by enabling eligible people on social welfare to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that leads to a higher qualification than that already held. In acknowledgement that the BTEA scheme has an important role to play in enhancing the employability skills of jobseekers, the Programme for Government 2011-2016 includes a commitment to resource a Jobs Fund that will finance a number of measures including the expansion of the eligibility for the BTEA scheme. This commitment is under active consideration in my Department.