Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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10. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who were engaged in activation measures as a direct result of referrals from the Pathways to Work Strategy; the details and duration of these measures; the number of successful outcomes, by age group, and by county, in each of the years 2014 to 2016 to date; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [8089/16]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Government’s primary strategy to tackle unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery, by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth. The Government’s Pathways to Workstrategies and the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan (YGIP), led by the Department of Social Protection, provide additional measures to ensure that as many of the new jobs as possible go to those who are on the Live Register, and for the YGIP in particular, young jobseekers 18 to 25. These measures include the initiation of or reforms to a range of activation programmes and supports.

Data on direct referrals to activation programmes initiated or reformed under the Pathways to Workand YGIP, linked to outcome data and disaggregated by county and age group, over the period 2014, 2015 and 2016, are not readily available. Each individual may move into and out of employment over the period, may participate in several programmes as a result and have multiple outcomes. This creates thousands of records for the population of jobseekers covered over the period.

However, the Central Statistics Office publish monthly statistics on those participating on certain activation programmes in a given month; the following table presents the relevant data for those activation programmes that are administered by the Department of Social Protection. Separately, the details and duration of these programmes is available from www.welfare.ie; this information is also provided below. Data are only available up to February 2016 so data at February 2014 and 2015 are given for comparative purposes.

DSP Live Register Activation Programmes (Number) Feb 2014-2016

*This scheme is closed to new applications from 1st May 2009.

**This scheme was introduced from 1st May 2009. It provides immediate support for someone in receipt of Jobseekers Benefit who wants to start a business.

***BTEA figures include all schemes but participants from JA & JB are not entitled to BTEA during the summer holidays. This figure includes Momentum participants from February 2013.

Duration and other details of Activation Programmes

Back to work payments (self-employment)

Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA)

The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance is designed to provide a monetary incentive for people who are long term dependent on social welfare payments to make engagement in self-employment financially attractive and viable, while allowing them to retain a reducing proportion of their qualifying social welfare payment over two years (100% in year 1 and 75% in year 2). The enterprise officers of Local Development Companies and INTREO Case Officers work closely with applicants in developing business plans and projections, and providing continuing support to individual start-ups.

Short-term Enterprise Allowance

The Short-term enterprise allowance was introduced in 2009 and replaced the Back to Work allowance scheme – employee strand. It gives support to people who have lost their job and want to start their own business. To qualify you must be getting Jobseeker’s Benefit. There is no qualifying period, which means you do not need to have been getting Jobseeker’s Benefit for a certain period of time. However, you will not qualify if you are getting Jobseeker’s Benefit and working part-time. From 4 April 2013 the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance is paid instead of your Jobseeker’s Benefit for a maximum of 9 months. It ends when your entitlement to Jobseeker's Benefit ends (that is at either 9 or 6 months).

Other employment programmes

Temporary employment on works of value to the community is supported under three main programmes.

Community Employment is an employment programme which helps long-term unemployed people to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine. The programme assists them to enhance and develop both their technical and personal skills which can then be used in the workplace. The CE programme is sponsored by groups wishing to benefit the local community, namely voluntary organisations and public bodies involved in not-for-profit activities. Community Employment is targeted on a wider range of welfare recipients aged 25 and over, but is open to certain particularly disadvantaged young people. Participation on the programme is initially for up to one year, but this may be extended in certain cases.

Tús is targeted at people of all ages who are out of work and on job-seekers’ payments for a year or more. Participants are generally employed by not-for-profit voluntary organisations. Duration of participation is one year.

Gateway is similar to Tús, but concentrated on employment, by local government authorities, of persons who had previously been more than two years unemployed. Duration of participation is one year.

The Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme (PTJI) is a scheme which allows persons who are long-term unemployed to take up part-time employment for less than 24 hours per week and receive a special weekly income supplement. Participants in this scheme are expected however to continue to make efforts to find full-time work.

Internships

JobBridge

JobBridge is the National Internship Scheme that provides work experience placements for interns for a 6 or 9 month period. The aim of the JobBridge is to assist in breaking the cycle where jobseekers are unable to get a job without experience, either as new entrants to the labour market after education or training or as unemployed workers wishing to learn new skills. The Scheme gives people a real opportunity to gain valuable experience to bridge the gap between study and their working lives, or between old and new jobs. The Scheme provides for work experience placements in the private, public, voluntary and community.

Support for unemployed people returning to education

Back to Education Allowance

The Department of Social Protection provides the Back to Education Allowance (BTEA) payment. It is an educational opportunities scheme for persons in receipt of certain social welfare payments who wish to pursue an approved full-time second or third level course of education in an approved college leading to a recognised qualification. The duration of participation on BTEA is determined by the duration of the educational course being pursued by the participant – typically three years, for example, in the case of an undergraduate degree course, and usually one year in the case of a Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) course.