John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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63. To ask the Minister for Social Protection if he will restore the jobseeker's allowance to persons under 26 years of age to the full payment; and his views on the contention that the reduction by the past two Governments was discriminatory on age grounds. [11806/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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In line with other EU and OECD jurisdictions where such measures feature in their social welfare systems, reduced rates for younger jobseeker’s allowance recipients were first introduced in 2009. Budget 2014 further extended the reduced rates of jobseeker’s allowance to recipients under 26 years of age.

This is a targeted, not discriminatory, measure aimed at protecting young people from welfare dependency by incentivising them to avail of education and training opportunities. If a jobseeker in receipt of the reduced jobseeker’s allowance rate participates on an education or training programme they will receive a higher weekly payment of €160.

To guard against the development of welfare dependency it is necessary to provide young jobseekers with a strong financial incentive to engage in education or training or to take up employment. If they do not improve their skills, it will be much more difficult for them to avail of job opportunities as the economy recovers and they are at risk of becoming long term unemployed from a young age.

The Youth Guarantee sets a medium-term objective of ensuring that all young people receive an offer of employment within four months of becoming unemployed. There is now monthly engagement with all young jobseekers. The main plank of the guarantee is assistance to young people in finding and securing sustainable jobs, through earlier and enhanced engagement processes.

Any change to the reduced rates of JA for people under 26 is a matter for Government to consider in a budgetary context.