Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Momentum programme is funded by the Department of Education and Skills through SOLAS and is designed on a payment-by-results basis specifically for long-term recipients of jobseekers payments. The Department of Social Protection, through Intreo, identifies and refers eligible and suitable clients to the Momentum programme. The current phase of Momentum is coming to a conclusion and a decision has yet to be taken on whether or not it will operate again next year. Should it be decided to repeat the programme, the Department will together with the Department of Education and Skills and SOLAS consider if, and if so how, eligibility might be extended to people with disabilities who may be receiving payments other than jobseekers’ payments. The Youth Guarantee sets a medium-term objective of ensuring that young people receive an offer of employment within four months of becoming unemployed. The main plank of the guarantee is through early engagement with young recipients of jobseekers payments to provide them with assistance in finding and securing sustainable jobs. Engagement with this process is mandatory for young jobseekers’ recipients. For those who do not find employment, additional offers are provided for. Most such offers (over 70%) are in further education or training. Others are in community-based employment programmes such as CE, Gateway and Tús, or through the JobsPlus employment subsidy for private employment.

As those young people with disabilities who approach Intreo offices for employment-related support receive immediate engagement, the main innovation provided by the Youth Guarantee is already in place for this group, as is access to the full range of supports and programmes available for young people more generally. The difference in the treatment of young persons in receipt of disability/illness support payments is that engagement with the Intreo service is on a voluntary basis, unlike job-seekers where participation in activation measures through the Intreo service is mandatory.

There is also a range of additional supports that are specific to people with disabilities.

These supports include the wage subsidy scheme (WSS), the EmployAbility (supported employment) service, the reasonable accommodation fund for the employment of people with disabilities and the disability awareness training scheme. For those who are in receipt of invalidity pension or illness benefit (for at least six months) and who feel they now have some capacity for work, the partial capacity benefit (PCB) scheme allows them to work and retain a portion of their social welfare payment.