Written answers

Tuesday, 16 April 2013

Department of Social Protection

Back to Education Allowance Eligibility

Photo of Joe HigginsJoe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will remove or alter the qualifying period for the back to education allowance to enable greater access to the scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16817/13]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The back to education allowance (BTEA) scheme is a second chance education opportunities scheme. It is 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.

The Department has recently published a review of employment support schemes, including BTEA, and held a stakeholders’ forum where review recommendations were discussed. All recommendations, including those on eligibility and qualification conditions of BTEA, will be considered as part of the implementation phase of the review.

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