Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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77. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the progress made on the commitment in the Pathways to Work 2015 strategy to develop and evaluate actions to extend services to persons not on the live register; to improve the promotion and communications around existing activation options; and her plans for access for qualified adults to the back to education allowance. [40097/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The key objective of activation policy and labour market initiatives is to offer assistance to those most 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 – Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseeker’s Allowance – that are conditional on the recipient being actively seeking and available for employment, as well as, in the case of Jobseeker’s Allowance, meeting a means test. The employment services and schemes provided by the Department are focused in the first instance on this cohort of unemployed people.

Currently, in line with the commitment in Pathways to Work, a range of services are available to unemployed persons who are not in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment. 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 qualifying payments may also be eligible to avail of up-skilling opportunities, for example through ETB (formerly FÁS) training for unemployed people, but are not eligible to receive a training allowance while undertaking the course. An unemployed person who does not qualify for a social welfare payment due to the assessment of their means may be eligible to sign for social insurance contribution credits. Persons who sign for credits for three months (78 days) of the last six months are eligible to participate in the JobBridge programme. Persons signing on for credits for 12 months or longer over the previous 18 months are entitled to participate on Momentum courses through Solas, provided that they have been actively seeking work, however they will not receive any payment. Persons signing for credits for six months or more are entitled to participate on ETB-run VTOS courses subject to availability. In the case of VTOS courses, participants do not receive a training allowance but may receive travel and lunch allowances. Springboard and Skillnets courses for unemployed people, funded through the Department of Education and Skills, are also open to people regardless of their social welfare status.

There is also a range of services provided specifically to assist people with disabilities participate in the labour market. These include advisory services provided through the EmployAbility companies, supported/subsidised employment, special training provision, and workplace adaptation grants. People with disabilities also have access to most of the Department’s general activation services. In order to improve access to these services the Department is arranging, with the National Disability Authority, to train its own case officers in the provision of advisory services to people with disabilities.

Activation services, including assignment of a case officer, have also been extended to people formerly classified as lone parents but have now migrated to the JobSeeker Transition Payment.

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.

However, it is also recognised that there is a need to improve the promotion of and communication around existing activation options. In this regard, for example, the DSP Employer Engagement Unit has conducted a number of career and job fairs in 2014 and 2015 at which information on activation options such as JobBridge, Experience your Europe, and JobPlus is made available.

An updated Pathways to Work2016-2020 strategy is under development within the Department of Social Protection and it is intended to bring this strategy to Government for approval by the end of this year. While the new strategy is still being formulated I expect that it will reflect labour market changes in our economy. In particular whereas the existing strategy was formulated during a period of very high unemployment and focused on supporting people who are unemployed the new strategy is likely, given the reduction in unemployment and ongoing growth in employment, to augment this focus by, in addition, seeking to support an increased level of labour market participation in order to ensure that economic growth can be sustained. The strategy will therefore focus on consolidating previous reforms and on continued prioritisation of key cohorts, as well as considering the expansion of activation services to other cohorts.

With respect to eligibility of qualified adults for the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA), both partners can simultaneously qualify for a BTEA payment and can be supported to undertake courses of study. The Qualified Adult Dependant of a person in receipt of one of the qualifying payments for BTEA purposes may be approved for BTEA provided they establish an entitlement to a BTEA qualifying payment in their own right and subject to satisfying all other BTEA conditions. Periods spent in receipt of a Qualified Adult Allowance on qualifying payments should be counted in addition to any periods in receipt of a qualifying payment in their own right provided the claims are not broken by more than 12 months. This provision does not extend to provide eligibility for the Qualified Adult Dependant of the person made Statutory Redundant. Eligibility to BTEA does not extend to Qualified Adult Dependants of participants of activation schemes.