Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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Question 11: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the specific measures she is considering in relation to labour activation measures, such as reducing social welfare benefits to persons who do not take up training or work offers; the timeframe for such measures and estimated resultant reduction in her Department's expenditure budget in 2012; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36324/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The National Employment and Entitlements Service as provided for in the Programme for Government, is being established by the Department. The new service will integrate employment and benefit payment services, currently delivered by FÁS and the Department, respectively, within the Department and will be based on a case management approach with the objective of providing a more customised and personal service to customers.

In line with good international practice, this new service will focus primarily on activation. The objective of the new service is to offer users a high level, personalised employment support and prioritise the provision of more intensive support for those on the live register who are identified as being most at risk of long-term unemployment. A key feature of the new service will be that customers will be expected to engage actively with these options in order to retain their entitlement to full benefit payments.

As part of the development of this overall approach, reduced rates were provided for in the Social Welfare Act 2010 to ensure compliance with the activation processes. Basically, there is a right to a payment but also a matching responsibility on the unemployed person to engage with the system. This, I think, is a reasonable approach from the individual's and the taxpayer's perspective. The reduced rates, which apply to personal jobseekers payments, may be implemented where a jobseeker:

(i) refuses an appropriate offer of training by an officer of my Department;

(ii) refuses, or declines to avail of, an offer of training from FÁS;

(iii) declines an intervention under the NEAP;

(iv) does not attend NEAP meetings with a FÁS officer;

(v) drops out of the NEAP process.

The relevant legislation provides safeguards for the social welfare recipient in terms of the reasonableness of the intervention being offered. In common with many social welfare provisions, the new measures allow for discretion on the part of a deciding officer, as an offer of training, education or employment must be viewed in the context of a person's circumstances. Where a customer has been subject to the reduced rate, the normal rate of payment will be restored from a current date when the person subsequently engages with the process or takes up offers of training that were made.

Any changes to the measures currently in place, the introduction of further measures, and any associated savings and timeframes, would be matters for Government to consider in a Budgetary context.