Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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402. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of persons with disabilities currently supported under the wage subsidy scheme for persons with disabilities; the number of companies currently involved with this scheme, by company type; and the number of persons supported in each company. [41847/20]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Wage Subsidy Scheme (WSS) is an employment support to private sector employers, the objective of which is to encourage employers to employ people with disabilities and thereby increase the numbers of people with disabilities participating in the open labour market.  The scheme provides financial incentives to private sector employers to hire people with a disability for between 21 and 39 subsidised hours per week under a contract of employment.  The basic rate of subsidy is €5.30 per hour giving a total annual subsidy available of €10,748 per annum based on a 39 hour week.  

The financial supports for employers availing of the WSS are structured under three separate strands and companies could benefit under one strand or under two or three strands simultaneously, as the case may be, depending on the number of people with a disability employed, as below.

Strand Iis a general subsidy for any perceived productivity shortfall in excess of 20% for a person with a disability, in comparison to a colleague without a disability.  The subsidy is based on the number of hours worked.  

Strand IIsubsidy is payable when an employer employs three or more people with disabilities who are supported by a WSS Strand I payment.  Strand II is intended to cover the additional supervisory, management and other work based costs relating to such employees.  This top-up payment is a percentage of the Strand I subsidy and is based on the overall number of employees with a disability employed under Strand I.  It ranges from an additional 10% of wage subsidy for 3 to 6 employees with a disability to a maximum of 50% of wage subsidy for 23+ employees with a disability.

Strand IIIsubsidy enables employers who employ 25 or more workers with a disability on the Wage Subsidy Scheme to be eligible for a grant of up to €30,000 per year towards the expense of employing an Employment Assistance Officer to support these employees. 

The information requested is set out in Tabular Form below and relates to the position at 2 December, 2020.

Table 1 sets out the number of persons with disabilities currently supported under the WSS. 

Table 2sets out the number of companies currently availing of the WSS, by company type. 

Table 3sets out the current number of persons supported by employer/company under the WSS. 

I trust this clarifies the issue for the Deputy.

Table 1: WSS participating employees

Table 2: WSS by company type and number of employers 

Table 3: Number of persons supported under WSS by employer/company