Colm Keaveney (Galway East, Independent)
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394. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide details of the job activation procedures being implemented by her Department in terms of those on jobseeker’s allowance and if she will identify each step of that process; the number of persons that have been invited to engage with that procedure up to the year ending April 2013; the number that have actively engaged to her Department’s satisfaction; the number of persons that have had their payments reduced following failure to engage with those procedures; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [25597/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Government’s Pathways to Work policy statement sets out how the State will engage with and support the unemployed to get back into the workforce. Through the rollout of Intreo offices nationwide, the aim is to engage with every unemployed individual to make sure that their first day out of work is also their first step on the pathway back to work.

Activation is defined as the engagement with customers of the Department of Social Protection, of working age, who are in receipt of specified social welfare payments/ benefits in order to support them and their families in progressing into employment and / or other appropriate progression. Such engagement shall be on the basis of the articulation of the supports to be offered to the customer to assist him / her to return to the workforce or otherwise progress. In accepting payment of benefit, assistance and / or support, the customer shall agree to avail him or herself of the appropriate support measures offered during the course of the activation process, including employment, education, training and / or placement in employment schemes.

Under the new Intreo approach, the process of engagement starts immediately when a client registers for a Jobseeker's Allowance payment, and is informed by a personal profile captured in respect of each individual. In the past no such profiles were captured and clients had to wait at least three months before being invited to a Group Engagement under the National Action Plan (NAP process).

As part of the registration process the client completes a profile questionnaire to enable the case worker assess the client’s Probability of Exit (PEX) from unemployment. Depending on the outcome of this assessment the elements of further engagement with the client will vary. While all clients are referred for a group engagement session, the content of the session varies depending on the client's PEX score. Clients with a low to mid-point PEX rating participate in Group Engagement sessions where they are provided with guidance on how to improve their job search activities and also on the training and development opportunities available to them to improve their employment prospects. Clients with a high-PEX are invited to a Group Engagement Session tailored to their needs, including a networking component, where they are encouraged and helped to search for and secure employment.

Following the group engagement, clients with a low PEX rating are immediately referred for a one-to-one session with an Employment Services Officer, where they agree a personal progression plan. These clients receive intensive one-to-one support from an experienced employment services advisor and may be directed to particular work experience and training programmes. Clients with high PEX scores also receive one to one guidance if they remain on the live register.

The first twelve Intreo offices are now live and it is intended to convert 40 offices to full Intreo working by the end of this year and to complete the full roll-out to all 63 offices of the Department in 2014. It is to be noted that key elements of the Intreo model are being rolled-out in advance of the physical modification of offices. Personal profiling is already in place in all offices while individual progression planning and the accelerated integrated decision process will be operational in all offices by the end of this year. Where the Intreo model has yet to be rolled out, the existing National Employment Action Plan (NEAP) process continues, whereby referral to employment services takes place after 3 months on the live register.

Taking both the Intreo offices and those still operating the older NEAP approach together, there were just over 41,100 initial referrals either to group engagement or one-to-one interviews in the period January-April of this year. Some 28,900 people attended these appointments; of those who did not attend, almost 4,000 had already closed their job-seekers’ claims by the date of their appointment. Over the same period, almost 9,300 people who had failed to attend an initial appointment were re-referred for interview or group engagement. Some 5,700 attended on re-referral, and 1,100 of those who failed to do so had already closed their job-seekers’ claims by the date of their appointment.

Reduced payment rates (penalty rates) for jobseekers were introduced in April 2011 as a means of achieving the engagement of jobseekers with activation measures. A penalty of up to €44 per week applies to an individual’s jobseeker payment where there is a failure to engage with this process.

The total number of penalty rates applied up to the end of 2012 was just over 1,800. A further 800 penalty rates were applied in the period from the beginning of January up to the end of April 2013.