Written answers

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Department of Social Protection

Labour Market

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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47. To ask the Minister for Social Protection for an update on the current situation regarding access to job activation, training and education for unrecognised jobseekers not on the live register, following the debate by the Joint Committee for Education and Social Protection. [7503/16]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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As noted in replies to similar previous Parliamentary Questions, given the scale of unemployment, the key objective of activation policy and labour market initiatives has been to offer assistance to those most in need of support in securing work and achieving financial self-sufficiency. Accordingly, the employment services and schemes provided by the Department are focused, in the first instance, on the cohort of people who are unemployed and in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment.

For those in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance and Jobseekers Benefit, it is a condition of their payment to engage in activation measures. Recipients of other payments, including disability allowance (DA) and the one parent family payment (OFP), can voluntarily avail of activation services and supports. The JobBridge internship scheme is now available to recipients of a wide range of payments (DA; OFP; Blind Persons Pension; Deserted Wives Allowance/Deserted Wives Benefit; Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s contributory/non-contributory Pension). Recipients of these payments are not counted on the Live Register.

In addition, unemployed persons (including those formerly self-employed) not in receipt of qualifying payments may be eligible to avail of up-skilling opportunities, for example through ETB training for unemployed people (at present there are 1,009 upcoming day courses and 552 upcoming evening courses). Although not eligible to receive a training allowance while undertaking the course, they may receive some support for expenses on travel, meals and accommodation. 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.

Many other services are also available to people 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.

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.

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. Within this overall objective it is appropriate to provide priority for those who are in receipt of payments that are conditional on being unemployed.

In developing the new Pathways to Work 2016 - 2020strategy, the Government engaged in extensive consultations with stakeholders including front-line workers delivering employment services to unemployed people. The strategy reflects the views and ideas gathered during this process as well as taking account of inputs from across all of Government and from agencies such as the OECD and advisory bodies such as the Labour Market Council and the Joint Committee for Education and Social Protection.

Based on these inputs, the strategy for 2016 to 2020 will reflect a shift in focus from ‘activation in a time of recession’ to ‘activation in a time of recovery and growth’ and in this regard should have two main objectives:

- First, to continue and consolidate the progress made to date with an initial focus on working with unemployed jobseekers, in particular people who are long-term unemployed.

- Second, to extend the approach of activation to other people who, although not classified as unemployed jobseekers, have the potential and the desire to play a more active role in the labour force.

Accordingly Pathways to Work 2016–2020includes numerous, specific actions to increase labour market participation and employment progression of people who are not currently active in the labour market and to apply the concept of active inclusion as a guiding principle particularly in the period from 2018 - 2020.

The principal specific actions relevant to job-seekers who are not on the Live Register are as follows:

Expand pro-active engagement to other people of working age who are unemployed but not in receipt of a jobseeker payment:

1. Review by 2017 the Jobseeker Transition (JST) activation model and consider whether changes should be made to the structure and operation of the scheme both to improve its effectiveness in supporting lone parents to transition to employment and/or to extend it as an option for other categories of welfare recipient.

2. Expand pro-active engagement to people who are working part-time but are in receipt of a welfare payment.

3. Develop a pro-active engagement approach to support qualified adult dependants of job-seeker claimants in securing employment. For example, promote the registration of qualified spouses/partners as jobseekers in their own right.

4. Promote the availability of existing services to ‘voluntary engagers’/‘walk-in’ clients, including immigrants, who are not on the Live Register but wish to avail of employment services.

5. Utilise inter-governmental public employment services such as EURES, and build relationships with public employment services in other countries to offer employment services to Irish emigrants seeking to return to work in Ireland.

6. Offer Intreo clients access to the Social Inclusion Community Activation Programme sponsored by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and to the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning.

7. Incorporate, as appropriate, time spent as an adult recipient or beneficiary of other full-time welfare payments (e.g. as a one-parent family payment recipient, or as a qualified adult dependent of a primary claimant) when assessing eligibility for access to employment supports.

Extend and intensify the pro-active engagement approach for people with a disability.

1. Review the range of income supports (including in-work supports) for people with disabilities to ensure payments are aligned between schemes and, if appropriate, amend the payment structure to ensure that it supports a return to work for people who wish to do so.

2. Expand the use of Intreo Centres to engage with people with disabilities and increase the number of Intreo staff trained in the provision of employment supports to people with disabilities.

3. Complete a review of the EmployAbility Service to increase utilisation of the service by people with disabilities and improve the level of employment placements.

4. Complete an analysis of existing databases of people in receipt of disability payments who may have a capacity to work and an interest in employment with a view to offering such people an opportunity to engage with the Intreo and/or the EmployAbility service.

5. Consider options to help recipients of Carer’s Allowance to access activation services as they cease their caring role.

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