Written answers

Thursday, 29 April 2021

Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection

Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment

Photo of Claire KerraneClaire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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82. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if persons on the pandemic unemployment payment have been contacted to engage with job activation schemes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22477/21]

Photo of Heather HumphreysHeather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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At the onset of the pandemic, as part of the Department’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and public health restrictions,  activation appointments were largely suspended from March 2020.   Limited services were provided during the course of 2020 and early 2021, subject to the public health restrictions in place at any time.    Employment services staff were redeployed initially to assist with Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) applications and also to income support helplines. Since February this year, employment services staff are returning to their roles in activation, leading to an increase in the numbers of systematic engagements with jobseekers.  Under current Level 5 public health restrictions, these engagements continue to be carried out by phone. 

This week, my Department has issued weekly payments valued at €119.9 million to 403,095 people in receipt of the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP). This is in addition to the 183,096 people who were on the Live Register at the end of March.

The jobs of many persons currently on PUP  will return once restrictions ease, and sectors of the economy gradually re-open,  as they did during previous easing of restrictions during 2020.  However, others will require assistance and support to return to employment, reskill and to find new jobs My Department is currently developing a  service delivery model for systematic engagement with PUP recipients with a view to  providing this service to those PUP recipients at most risk of not returning to previous employment, in the near future. 

Under the July Jobs Stimulus, my Department,  along with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is supporting initiatives to assist people, whose employment has been affected by the pandemic,  get back to work.

These include:

- Expanding the caseload capacity of Intreo Centres, with the assignment of 100 job coaches to provide enhanced employment services and supports. Recruitment for these posts is almost complete, with an additional 85 job coaches now in place in these new roles.

- Increasing the benefit of the JobsPlus recruitment subsidy to employers who hire young people. Under this scheme an employer receives the JobsPlus subsidy of €7,500 once they employ a young person (under 30 years of age) who has been unemployed for just 4 months. A higher subsidy of €10,000 is paid for recruitment of a person who was long-term unemployed (over 12 months).

- Providing access to additional full-time and part-time education, including targeted short-term courses, with over 35,000 new education and training places for those currently unemployed.

- Providing incentives to employers to take on more apprentices, with the provision of a grant of €3,000 to employers for each new apprentice recruited.

- Facilitating access to the Back to Education Allowance and Back to Work Enterprise Allowance to those displaced by the pandemic and in receipt of PUP, by waiving the usual qualifying period of 3-9 months.

Persons in receipt of PUP who wish  to pursue short term or part-time study, can continue to receive  a PUP payment, while undertaking these courses.  There are many options and supports available to those wishing to pursue short-term or part-time training or education, without a qualification period and without affecting their existing PUP entitlements.

Anyone of working age, including PUP recipients may contact their local Intreo Centre to avail of employment services, discuss eligibility for schemes and further education and training opportunities. Employment Services staff can help those who have lost their jobs find a new one, retrain, or develop new skills, in particular for emerging growth sectors. 

My Department is at an advanced stage in developing a new Work Placement Experience Programme for those out of work for at least six months, including time spent on PUP, regardless of age. This programme will seek to encourage businesses to provide jobseekers with the necessary workplace skills to compete in the labour market and to help break the vicious circle of “no job without experience, no experience without a job”. I expect to launch the Programme in the near future, as soon as public health restrictions allow.

Work is nearing completion on the Government's  National Economic Plan and my Department’s Pathways to Work Strategy.  These strategies will set out how an expanded Public Employment service will utilise its increased capacity to deliver effective public employment services in a post COVID labour market with increased demands for such services amongst those who have permanently lost jobs arising from the pandemic. In addition, Pathways to Work will also set out strategies to respond to pre-COVID labour market challenges, namely underemployment and under participation in the labour market amongst certain groups.

I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.

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