Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 16 December 2009
262 Deputy Leo Varadkar asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the number of persons in Dublin 15 in receipt of jobseeker’s benefit, jobseeker’s allowance, one parent family payment, transition pension, non-contributory State pension, contributory State pension, carer’s allowance and disability benefit; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [47461/09]
View answerThe information requested by the Deputy is contained in the attached tabular statement:
|
Scheme |
Number of Recipients |
|
Jobseeker’s Benefit |
3,542 |
|
Jobseeker’s Allowance |
3,761 |
|
One-Parent Family Payment |
2,383 |
|
State Pension (Transition) |
117 |
|
State Pension (Contributory) |
1,708 |
|
State Pension (Non-Contributory) |
478 |
|
Carer’s Allowance |
469 |
|
Illness Benefit |
1,426 |
263 Deputy Noel Ahern asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if a profile of persons is established of those who have become unemployed and signed on for jobseeker’s benefit or allowance recently, for example, in the last 12 to 18 months; if details of the new unemployed by age, education, skills, experience and so on is available; the way in which FÁS or other agencies tasked with the role of education, upskilling or retraining can do so if a profile of persons is not available; and if she has refocused or is she running the same courses as we did for the long-term unemployed. [47465/09]
View answerUnder the National Employment Action Plan (NEAP) all persons between the ages of 18 and 65 years who are approaching 3 months on the Live Register are identified by the Department of Social and Family Affairs and referred to FÁS for interview. The purpose is to facilitate access to the range of employment and training services offered by FÁS. FÁS captures detailed data on the profile of all clients who register with FÁS. This includes details of their education levels, qualifications, work experience and employment sought. This information has helped inform FÁS provision, including the recent development of an expanded range of training programmes using a variety of modes of delivery (e.g. short duration courses, long duration courses, e-learning and blended learning courses, evening/part-time courses).
FÁS has expanded the options available to the jobseeker to upskill and gain accreditation for re-entry into the labour market. FÁS through the Technical Employment Support Grant, which has been significantly expanded, funds training which is not currently directly available from FÁS. This measure has substantially addressed demand from clients to meet their training needs. The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) report "National Profiling of the Unemployed in Ireland" recently issued . The objective of the report is to identify metrics other than duration of unemployment to target additional supports for people at risk of becoming long-term unemployed.
This comprehensive study, which also looks at international practice in the area of early intervention and profiling models, will prove very significant in targeting scarce resources at those who are furthest from the labour market. In order to ensure the progression of the profiling initiative legislative provision for capturing profile data and for its use in selecting claimants for intervention was made in the Social Welfare Pensions Act earlier this year. The Department is examining the process changes required for the implementation of profiling of the unemployed.
