Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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84. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the increase in sanctions and penalties taken against jobseekers is due to the interaction of the JobPath providers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [53448/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Penalty rates were introduced as a means of encouraging jobseekers to engage with activation measures and co-operate with efforts of the Department to assist them in securing employment. The Department is committed, under Pathways to Work, to incentivise the take-up of activation opportunities, including implementing sanctions for failure to engage.

The legislation underpinning the application of penalty rates is provided for in the Social Welfare Act, 2010. Penalty rates can only be applied in specific circumstances and the decision to impose a penalty can only be made by a Deciding Officer of my Department. Contracted providers cannot and do not apply penalty rates. There has been no change in policy, or the implementation of penalty rate provisions in this respect. Penalty rates are only applied as a last resort. If dissatisfied with that decision it is open to the Jobseeker to appeal to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

The introduction of the JobPath service in mid-2015 has complemented my Department’s existing activation services and has facilitated a very significant increase in the numbers of Jobseekers to whom activation services can be provided. To date approximately 199,000 Jobseekers have engaged with the JobPath programme. The increases in the numbers of penalty rates applied each year relates to the overall numbers of jobseekers brought into activation.

Significantly, of those jobseekers who are in activation at any given time, either within my Department's Intreo service, or the contracted services of JobPath and the LES, only approximately 1% have a penalty rate at any given time.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the deputy.