Michael Creed
Question:318 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the schemes which his Department offers to encourage long-term unemployed persons to return to work. [30531/01]
Vol. 545 No. 4
318 Mr. Creed asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs the schemes which his Department offers to encourage long-term unemployed persons to return to work. [30531/01]
My Department's employment support services offers a number of options which are designed to assist and encourage long-term unemployed and other long-term welfare recipients to return to work, training or further education. The first of these is the back to work allowance scheme which encourages long-term unemployed people, lone parents and certain persons with disabilities to return to work by allowing them to retain part of their social welfare payment when they take up employment or self-employment.
Last year I introduced an enhanced version of this scheme specifically targeted at persons who had been five years or more on the live register. Persons participating in this can avail of a six week training period either on or off the job and during this period receive a top up of £35 a week in addition to their weekly unemployment payment. An additional incentive is the payment of a £200 bonus on taking up employment and a further payment of £200 on completion of six months work. The back to work allowance scheme has been highly successful since its introduction and to date almost 78,000 people, the vast majority of whom were previously long-term unemployed, have taken part in the scheme. Currently there are 32,700 participants in the scheme, approximately half of whom are engaged in a wide range of self employment options.