Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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201. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if jobseekers with disabilities will be included in the European youth guarantee scheme and enabled to participate in all schemes on a voluntary basis. [33217/15]

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The Government recognises the importance of increasing participation in employment for persons with a disability. To this end, the Department provides a wide range of work related supports, which in 2015 will cost an estimated €37 million solely for persons with a disability.

The Government’s commitments to facilitating increased participation in employment for persons with a disability are reflected in the Comprehensive Employment Strategy. In addition, under the Comprehensive Employment Strategy an interdepartmental group will be established, under an independent chair, to review and make recommendations on 'making work pay' for people with disabilities through examination of the complex interactions between the benefit system, the additional costs associated with work for people with disabilities, and net income gains in employment.

In addition, a young person with a disability is at all times free to avail of the Intreo service on a voluntary basis and a complete range of activation supports for people with disabilities is available at Intreo Centres. The Department is also currently considering how people with disabilities might best be included in the Momentum programme.

Under the Youth Guarantee the main innovation in dealing with young people on jobseekers’ payments relates to earlier engagement with this group than is normal under the general activation arrangements for unemployed people through INTREO. This will mean that young people on jobseekers’ payments will be referred to a caseworker, and be engaged with more systematically in terms of their rights and responsibilities, at an earlier date than older unemployed people. For such young jobseekers, engagement with activation measures through the Intreo service is mandatory.

The current situation in respect of young people with disabilities who present at a DSP office needing activation/intervention type supports is that they are they are already referred immediately to a caseworker within Intreo or at the Local Employment Service (LES). For such young persons in receipt of disability/illness support payments, engagement with the Intreo service is on a voluntary basis.

A caseworker working with a young person with a disability can arrange access for that young client to the full range of services and programmes that are available to young people on jobseekers’ payments. This includes access to programmes such as JobBridge, the Back to Education Allowance, and Solas training for unemployed people.

In addition, however, the caseworker can arrange access to a range of other services and supports that are specific to people with disabilities and are not available to other young jobseekers. These include:-

EmployAbility

EmployAbility is an open labour market initiative providing disabled people with supports to help them access the open labour market. It is implemented by sponsor organisations (EmployAbility) on behalf of DSP who employ Job Coaches to provide a range of supports tailored to the individual needs of a jobseeker. The ultimate objective is that the employee becomes independent of Job Coach support.

The Supported Employment Service under EmployAbility is an employment and recruitment service to assist people with a disability to secure and maintain a job in the open labour market. This Supported Employment Service provides a range of supports to employers and people with a disability, through Job Coaches. The range of supports includes:

-Individual Needs Assessment

-Vocational Profiling and Career Planning

-Individual Employment Plan

-Job Sourcing and Job Matching

-On-the-Job Support and Coaching

-Advice and Support to Employers

-Follow-up Support and Mentoring to both Employers & Employees.

The Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS)

The purpose of this demand - led programme is to increase the numbers of people with disabilities participating in the open labour market. WSS provides financial incentives to employers, outside the public sector, to employ disabled people who work more than 20 hours per week. The Scheme is structured in three strands. The employer can benefit from one or all, simultaneously.

Strand I subsidy- is a general subsidy for any perceived productivity shortfall in excess of 20% for a disabled person, in comparison to a non-disabled peer. An employee must work a minimum of 21 hours per week up to a maximum of 39 hours per week.The rate of subsidy is €5.30 per hour and is based on the number of hours worked, giving a total annual subsidy available of €10,748 per annum based on 39 hour week.

Strand II- is based on the total number of disabled employees in a company, an employer can apply for a grant to cover additional costs ranging from an additional 10% for 3-6 employees to a maximum of 50% of the wage subsidy for 23+ disabled employees.

Strand III- is where 30 or more disabled people are employed, employers can avail of a grant of €30,000 per annum to assist with the cost of employing an Employment Assistance Officer.

Unlike other recruitment subsidies such as JobsPlus, WSS is payable indefinitely as long as the disabled person remains in the employment concerned. New Applicants for WSS who are currently on Disability Allowance may apply for DA Disregard in conjunction with the WSS provided the minimum 21 working hours per week WSS threshold is maintained.

Disability Support/Awareness

A number of different employment supports for people with disabilities are provided for under this heading.

A. Workplace Equipment Adaptation Grant

B. Job Interview\Personal Reader Grant

C. Employee Retention Grant Scheme.

D. Disability Awareness Support Scheme

Community Employment

The CE eligibility requirements for people with disabilities are not as demanding as for other Job seeker groups so as to encourage participation. Those on job-seekers’ payments generally must be aged over 25 and on a payment for a year or more. Effectively a person in receipt of DA who is aged 18 or over can be in receipt of their payment for 1 week and be eligible for CE.

Specialist Training Providers

Apart from having access to the full range of training programmes for unemployed people provided through Solas, people with disabilities also have access to Specialist Training Programme provision specific to their needs.

Key additional features of specialist vocational training, as compared with programmes for the generality of unemployed job-seekers, include:

-additional training duration

-adapted equipment

-transport arrangements

-enhanced programme content

-trainer-learner ratio

-qualifications of staff

-additional opportunities for assessment

-individualised approach.

In the light of the enhanced existing arrangements already in place for young people with disabilities, it was not necessary to make further adjustments in the context of the changes being made to the treatment of young recipients of jobseeker’s payments under the youth guarantee implementation plan.

Pathways to Work 2015 includes a commitment to develop and evaluate options for the further extension of employment services to people not on the live register and to improve the promotion/communication of existing activation options for this group, and young people with disabilities will be considered in that context. The Department is also currently considering how people with disabilities might best be included in future initiatives of the Momentum programme.