Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The key objective of activation policy and labour market initiatives is to offer assistance to those in need of support in securing work and achieving financial self-sufficiency. This policy objective prioritises scarce resources to those in receipt of qualifying welfare payments. Accordingly the employment services and schemes provided by the Department are focused, in the first instance, on this cohort of unemployed people. This group includes a significant number of formerly self-employed people. The Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare, in examining issues involved in extending social insurance coverage for self-employed people, found that almost 9 out of every 10 self-employed people who claimed the means tested jobseeker’s allowance during the three-year period from 2009 to 2011 received payment.

Many services are also available to the unemployed who are not in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment, regardless of their previous employment/self-employment status. For example employment services, such as advice on job-search activities and the use of online job search tools, are available to people if they register with the Department’s employment services offices, regardless of their social welfare status.

Further, unemployed persons not in receipt of payments, including the previously self-employed, may also be eligible to avail of up-skilling opportunities, for example through ETB (formerly FÁS) training for unemployed people, although they are not eligible to receive a training allowance while undertaking the course. Springboard and Skillnets courses for unemployed people, funded through the Department of Education and Skills, are also open to people who were previously self-employed, regardless of their social welfare status.

The Pathways to Work 2015 strategy includes a commitment to develop and evaluate actions to extend services to people not on the Live Register and improve the promotion/communication of existing activation options. This will be considered in the light of the developing labour market and budgetary context.

In short, the Government is committed to supporting as many people as possible to participate more fully in employment and to become more self-sufficient by providing supports that address barriers they may encounter in finding and sustaining employment.