Terence Flanagan
Question:162. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Minister for Social Protection the help her Department provides for those unemployed and actively seeking work; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [2007/14]
View answerThursday, 16 January 2014
Questions (162)
Written answers
In the first instance, the Government’s primary strategy to tackle unemployment is to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth. In addition to promoting economic recovery, the Government recognises the need for interim measures to support the unemployed and keep jobseekers close to the labour market. These actions range across a number of Departments and Agencies. Given the scale of the unemployment challenge, the key objective of labour market policy is to keep those on the Live Register close to the labour market and prevent the drift into long-term unemployment. Persons from the Live Register availing of activation measures will get an opportunity to engage in employment, training and work experience and so be in a position to avail of employment opportunities as the economy improves. In this context, the major elements of this Department’s response are set out in the Pathways to Work policy which is aimed at ensuring that as many as possible of the job vacancies that are created are filled by people from the Live Register, with a particular focus on those who are long term unemployed or at risk of long-term unemployment.
The Pathways to Work policy and the establishment of the new integrated INTREO service will transform the nature and level of engagement between our employment and income support services and the unemployed. The Pathways to Work policy aims, with regards to supports for unemployed persons, to:
- Provide all registered unemployed people with efficient, work-focused income supports together with access to the information and the advice required to help them plan and action a pathway back into employment.
- Provide unemployed people, in particular people who are long-term unemployed and young unemployed people, with opportunities to enhance their job prospects through value-adding work experience, education and training activities.
In terms of the first strand, there were 122,300 activation referrals via the Group Engagement process in the first eleven months of 2013 (up from 63,700 in 2012), and 105,900 one-to-one referrals in the same time period (compared to 100,200 in 2012). During the Group Engagement process and the one-to-one interviews, unemployed persons are advised of the supports that are available to them, and of their responsibilities as jobseekers.
In terms of enhancing job prospects, the Department has a number of supports available for jobseekers:
- JobBridge (the National Internship Scheme) provides work experience placements for interns for a 6 month or a 9 month period. The aim of JobBridge is to assist in breaking the cycle where jobseekers are unable to get a job without experience, either as new entrants to the labour market after education or training or as unemployed workers wishing to learn new skills. Some 6,400 people are currently participating on this scheme.
- The JobsPlus incentive scheme encourages employers to recruit long-term unemployed people. The incentive is payable monthly in arrears, over a 2-year period. There are 2 levels of incentive: €7,500 for recruits unemployed for more than 12 but less than 24 months and €10,000 for recruits unemployed for more than 24 months.
- In addition, the Department also manages a number of schemes providing temporary employment for the long-term unemployed on works and services of value to the community. There were almost 31,000 people participating on Community Employment and Tús in December 2013. There are also 3,000 places in 2014 on Gateway, a local authority labour activation scheme that provides short-term work and training opportunities for long-term unemployed people who have been on the Live Register for over 2 years.
- In terms of up-skilling, the Back to Education Allowance scheme run by my Department provides income maintenance, along with a contribution to education costs, for unemployed people returning to further or higher education. Approximately 26,000 people participated in the BTEA in the last academic year.
- Two further up-skilling options available are the Part-time Education Option (PTEO) and Education Training and Development Option (ET&D). Both PTEO and ET&D are designed to facilitate jobseekers who wish to engage in part time day, evening or weekend courses or more intensive short duration courses of education and training while retaining their jobseeker’s payments. The PTEO allows participants to attend part-time day/evening or weekend courses of education or training and retain their jobseeker’s payment while an entitlement exists provided that they continue to satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking employment on an on-going basis. Payment is made at the same rate as the primary payment and no maximisation of payments occurs. The ET&D allows participants to attend certain courses of education, training or development of short duration and retain their jobseeker’s payment while an entitlement exists. Participants are exempt from engaging in job search but must be available for employment should an opportunity arise.
The Pathways to Work Strategy sets a target of moving 20,000 of the 180,800 people who were on the Live Register and fully unemployed for over a year at the beginning of 2012, into employment by the end of 2013. By the end of 2013, 26,611 of this group were known to have moved into employment. Of these, 19,695 had entered full-time employment and left the Live Register, and 6,916 had entered part-time employment. As there can be some time lag in the reporting of new entries to employment by the relevant employers, it is likely that these figures will increase retrospectively as further records become available.