Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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416. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of applications for additional needs payment and exceptional needs payment by county to date in 2022; and the number of applications awarded in tabular form. [62162/22]

Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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422. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of applications for ANP and ENP by county for the months of October and November in 2021 and October and November in 2022; and the number of applications awarded in tabular form. [62207/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 416 and 422 together.

Under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) scheme, my Department can make Additional Needs Payments (ANPs) to help meet expenses that a person cannot pay from their weekly income. This is an overarching term used to refer to exceptional and urgent needs payments, and certain supplements to assist with ongoing or recurring costs that cannot be met from the person's own resources, and which are deemed to be necessary.

The scheme is demand led and payments are made at the discretion of the officers administering the schemes taking into account the requirements of the legislation and all the relevant circumstances of the case in order to ensure that the payments target those most in need of assistance.

A person can apply for an ANP by completing a SWA1 form, which is widely available. It can be downloaded at www.gov.ie.It is available in all Intreo Centres and Branch Offices. It can also be requested by emailingcwsforms@welfare.ieor by calling the National Community Welfare Service freephone number at 0818 60 70 80. A person can also request a SWA1 form by using the Request Application Form page available on www.gov.ie.

The following table details ANPs registered in October and November 2021 and the latest available statistics in the year-to-date September 2022:

I trust this clarifies the matter.

Claire Kerrane (Roscommon-Galway, Sinn Fein)
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417. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the number of social welfare participants involved in skill development schemes, community and voluntary schemes and training courses per payment type in tabular form; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [62197/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Irish labour market has experienced a robust recovery post-COVID. According to the latest estimates from the CSO’s Labour Force Survey (Q3, 2022), the number of people in employment is now above 2.55 million, the highest level in the history of the State, while the unemployment rate for November 2022 stood at 4.4 percent, below pre-pandemic levels.

The table below provides an overview of the number of participants on activation programmes. These figures are available in the CSO’s monthly Live Register publication. While the majority of people enrolled in these programmes are jobseeker’s recipients, there are a range of other social welfare recipients also participating in the programmes listed below.

Table: Scheme participants, October 2022

As part of Pathways to Work, the Government’s national employment services strategy, my Department has specific commitments to improve labour market outcomes for people facing higher barriers to employment, including people with disabilities. As of the 11th of November, there were 798 former Disability Allowance recipients enrolled in Community Employment, 51 on the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance and 54 on the Back to Education Allowance. This includes people who transferred onto an activation programme since the 1st of January 2019. Enrolment into programmes is entirely voluntary for this group.