Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 34: To ask the Minister for Social Protection the reason persons who find that work in their primary degree and qualifications has dried up and who try to re-skill by going back to education and undertake a primary degree in another field and who bear the burden of college fees and associated costs are not paid back to education allowance even though such persons are in full time education in circumstances where such persons means would require social welfare assistance; and if she will change the eligibility criteria for back to education allowance. [39264/11]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The back to education allowance (BTEA) scheme is a second chance education opportunities scheme designed to remove the barriers to participation in second and third level education by enabling eligible people on certain social welfare payments to continue to receive a payment while pursuing an approved full-time education course that leads to a higher qualification than that already held.

Progression has always been a fundamental condition of the back to education allowance. State support for education purposes is grounded on a student progressing from one qualification level to a higher one. This is necessary to ensure displacement does not occur, in that courses could be offered to students who are not progressing at the cost of students progressing from a lower education level. Furthermore, the scheme was never intended to be an alternative form of funding for people entering or re-entering the third level education system.

However, if a person wishes to pursue a part time education course they may be able to do so while still obtaining their jobseeker's payment. They must apply at their local social welfare office and verify that participation on the course does not reduce their availability for work. In the case of jobseeker's benefit, participation on a course does not grant any extension to the normal period for which jobseeker's benefit is paid.

On May 10 2011, as part of the Government's Jobs Initiative, 20,900 new and additional places were announced in training, education and work experience programmes. As part of this initiative, a new fund, entitled Springboard, which is being managed by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on behalf of the Department of Education and Skills, provides education and training opportunities to support unemployed people. The primary objective of Springboard is to help unemployed people to remain as close as possible to the labour market by accessing part-time flexible higher education and training opportunities to upskill or reskill in areas where sustainable employment opportunities may arise as the economy recovers. The target group for this programme of over 200 courses, which are provided free of charge, includes unemployed people with a previous history of employment who already hold a higher level qualification at NFQ Levels 6 to 9, who may also require additional upskilling or reskilling in order to re-enter employment. By way of the part-time education option, unemployed people on jobseeker's payments will be facilitated in retaining their payment, subject to continuing entitlement, within the broader back to education framework.

There are no plans, at present, to modify the existing qualifying criteria for the BTEA scheme for people who are not progressing in educational qualifications However, the BTEA scheme, in conjunction with other employment support schemes, will continue to be monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure that it continues to meet its objective.