Written answers

Thursday, 28 September 2017

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

JobPath Programme

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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269. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if JobPath providers Turas Nua and a company (details supplied) are engaging with persons that are not long-term unemployed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41105/17]

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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270. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of part-time workers that are engaging with the JobPath scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41106/17]

Photo of John BradyJohn Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Fein)
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271. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of school teachers that are engaging with the JobPath scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41107/17]

Photo of Regina DohertyRegina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 269 to 271, inclusive, together.

As the Deputy will be aware, JobPath is an employment activation service that supports people who are long-term unemployed and those most at risk of becoming long-term unemployed to secure and sustain paid employment. The service is delivered by two companies, Seetec Ltd and Turas Nua Ltd.

For the purposes of the JobPath service all long-term unemployed jobseekers on the Live Register are categorised into groups based on their duration of unemployment (e.g. 1- 2 years, 2 – 3 years etc.). Selection for referral to the JobPath provider is by means of stratified random sampling using these groupings; the objective being to ensure equity in selection and also that people referred to JobPath are a representative of the long-term cohort on the Live Register. The duration of a person's jobseeker claim is recorded in terms of days of unemployment. Jobseeker Allowance claims are made up of continuous periods of unemployment. Any two such periods not separated by more than 52 weeks is considered to be the same continuous period of unemployment. Long-term jobseekers that may have left the live register to go into employment are still considered to be long-term if they reopen their claim within the 52 weeks. They retain certain entitlements (for example no waiting days and other supplemental benefits) and are eligible for selection for activation services including JobPath.

Customers who have not been in full-time employment but are returning to Jobseeker’s payments from other departmental employment schemes, for example community employment and TÚS are also eligible for selection for JobPath.

To date some 9,000 part time workers have engaged with the JobPath service, this figure represents approximately 8% of the total number of clients who have engaged with JobPath.

There were approximately 72,000 people with JobPath in August 2017. There was no data on a level of education for 18% of this cohort. Of the remaining 82%, some 0.8% have informed the Department that they are teaching professionals. This group includes self-described teachers / tutors / instructors of all disciplines and levels.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.

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