Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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673. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons who have been sanctioned for refusing to sign a personal progression plan with companies (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [50633/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware, JobPath is a 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 commenced operations in mid-2015, and reached full State-wide delivery of the service in July 2016.

Jobseekers who are selected for JobPath, are invited to attend an initial information session at which the jobseekers’ rights and responsibilities are explained. Participants on JobPath receive intensive individual support to help them address barriers to employment. Each participant is assigned a personal advisor who assesses their skills, experience, challenges and work goals and agrees a “personal progression plan” that includes a schedule of activities, actions and job focused targets. Participants are provided with a range of development supports and may also be referred for further education and training opportunities.

It is important to note that the rules and processes for the application of a reduced rate of payment are the same across all of the Department’s activation services, whether they are delivered directly by the Department’s own Intreo service or through its contracted services such as the Local Employment Service or JobPath service. Only a departmental official can make a decision to apply a reduced rate of payment. The process with regard to such decisions includes written/verbal warnings from a departmental official and an opportunity for the jobseeker to re-engage with the service prior to the application of a reduced payment rate.

Up to the end of October 2017 approximately 9,000, or 6.9% of the total 129,000 clients who engaged with the JobPath service between July 2015 and October 2017 have had, at some point, a penalty rate applied to their payment: some of these clients may have had the penalty rate applied after finishing their engagement period with the JobPath service, so the actual numbers who have had a penalty rate applied while with the JobPath service will be lower.

Data specifically related to the application of reduced payments for clients refusing to sign a personal progression plan is not available. It is important to note that the factors to be considered in applying a penalty rate precludes me from making a definitive statement that the sole context involved would have been non engagement with JobPath.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.