Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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276. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the measures, if any, in Budget 2025 which are aimed at decreasing the rate of unemployment among disabled people; and if funding for these measures are for additional services or for the continuation of existing services. [40236/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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My Department offers a wide range of supports aimed at decreasing the rate of unemployment among disabled people. Through our nationwide network of Intreo centres we provide a case managed employment service for jobseekers with disabilities. The person works with an Employment Personal Advisor with a view to agreeing a suitable personal progression plan in order to access the full range of employment supports available.

The Department contracts specialist employment services, called EmployAbility, to provide both pre-employment and in-employment support and assistance for disabled people and a recruitment and job matching service for employers. There are 23 of these contracted providers across the country.

Early Engagement is targeted at recipients of a disability payment. It involves the Public Employment Service actively engaging with people with disabilities at the earliest opportunity, on a voluntary basis, offering supports to assist them in achieving their employment ambitions.

In December 2023, I announced the establishment of the new WorkAbility programme to support the employment of people with disabilities under the European Social Fund Plus. The programme has an overall budget of up to €36.29million and will run from January 2024 to December 2028. It aims to support over 13,000 disabled people progress their training and employment ambitions over its lifetime and will be delivered by 56 local and community organisations nationwide.

On 30 July 2024, I launched the Work and Access Scheme. The scheme offers seven supports to help reduce or remove barriers in the workplace for people with a disability to allow them to get a job or stay in work. The supports include funding for a workplace needs assessment, communication supports and equipment. Funding is also available to employers for workplace adaptations and disability awareness training. Work and Access is open to all non-public sector employers, including the self-employed and people working in the Community and Voluntary sector. Supports are available for both business premises and remote workplaces. I have allocated an additional €1 million a year for this scheme.

The Wage Subsidy Scheme is an employment support to private sector employers to encourage employment of people with disabilities in the open labour market. The employment must be between 15 and 39 hours per week. In August 2024, I published a review of this scheme with six recommendations to increase take-up and to make the scheme more accessible and flexible for people with disabilities and their employers. In anticipation of recommendations in the review, I made provision in Budget 2024 to decrease the minimum hours from 21 to 15 hours as this was a key issue raised by stakeholders in the consultation and allocated an additional €3.7 million to the scheme. I introduced this change from 1 April this year. The recommendations will be implemented by January 2025.

Both Disability Allowance and Blind Pension are structured to support recipients to avail of their own employment opportunities, be that self-employment or insurable employment. An income disregard of €165 per week is applied with tapering of earnings between €165 and €375. A person can earn up to €505.10 per week and still keep a portion of their disability payment.

People in receipt of Invalidity Pension can transfer to Partial Capacity Benefit to return or take up employment. The personal rate of payment of Partial Capacity Benefit is based on a medical assessment of a person’s restriction regarding their capacity for work. A person's restriction regarding their capacity for work is rated as moderate, severe or profound. Partial Capacity Benefit has been designed so there are no restrictions/limits on earnings from employment or on the number of hours a person can work under the scheme.

I am increasing payment rates for Disability Allowance, Blind Pension and Invalidity Pension are being increased by €12 from January 2025 under Budget 2025.

People with disabilities are also able to access mainstream schemes which Intreo offers, including Back to Work Enterprise Allowance, Community Employment, Tús, Rural Social Scheme and the Work Placement Experience Programme. As part of Budget 2025, I am increasing the payment for those participating in the Community Employment Programme, Tús and the Rural Social Scheme by €12 per week from January 2025. The Work Placement Experience Programme (WPEP) is a work experience programme that aims to provide jobseekers who have never had a job or who have lost employment with an opportunity to gain meaningful work experience. Under Budget 2025, I am increasing the rate of payment for this programme by €24 from €335 to €359 a week.

I trust that this clarifies the matter.