Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to reduce the amount of days that are required for persons who apply for back to education allowance to participate on a third level education course to take into consideration self employed persons who may have become unemployed and are not entitled to statutory redundancey; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38223/12]

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.

In general, the qualifying period for the second level option is 3 months (78 days) on a social welfare payment while the qualifying period for third level courses is 9 months (234 days) having been reduced from 12 months in 2010. A person awarded statutory redundancy may access BTEA immediately (or within 12 months), provided an entitlement to a relevant social welfare payment is established prior to commencing an approved course of study.

A waiting period prior to entitlement is considered essential to enable people to engage in job search and consider options available to them. The imposition of a waiting period serves to minimise the “deadweight” element which is the extent to which people would have moved into employment or training and education without access to the scheme. It is also considered necessary in the context of targeting scarce resources at those who need it most.

My Department is currently reviewing a wide range of activation supports available to DSP customers, including BTEA, and it is my intention to canvass the views of stakeholders as part of the implementation process resulting from the review.