Written Answers Nos. 70 - 81
70. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide more stability for those on community employment schemes who are being moved on despite a need in particular service. [19755/14]
View answerCommunity Employment (CE) is an active labour market programme/intervention designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons (including lone parents, recovering drug misusers and those with a disability) with an opportunity to engage in useful part-time work within their communities on a temporary, fixed-term basis. CE helps unemployed people to re-enter the active workforce and assists them to enhance/develop both their technical and personal skills by providing opportunities for individual training and development.
There are currently two options for participation on CE based on the length of time a person is in receipt of the qualifying social welfare payments:
- Part-time Integration Option (PTI) which is a one-year programme of CE for those who have generally been in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payments for 52 continuous weeks or more; and
- Part-time Job Option (PTJ) which is a three year programme subject to annually renewable contracts for those who have generally been in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payments for 156 continuous weeks or more.
Since April 2000, lifetime cumulative participation on CE by an individual is limited to:
- 3 years (156 weeks) for persons under 55 years of age;
- 6 years (312 weeks) for persons of 55 years of age up to and including 65 years of age; and
- Eligible persons in receipt of a qualifying disability-linked social welfare payment will be eligible for one additional year on CE over the standard maximum participation caps, i.e. 4 years cumulative maximum time on CE for those under 55 years of age (Part-Time Job Option only), and 7 years cumulative maximum time for those between 55 and 65 (Part-Time Job Option only).
In terms of extending a participant’s time on CE for another year under the Part-Time Integration Option, the CE Sponsor must submit a proposal for the re-engagement of participants to the Department officials at least 8 weeks before the participant’s annual contract is due to expire. In the application for re-engagement, the Sponsor must identify the circumstances for the re-engagement of each participant, in line with the following criteria:
(i) Where the participant would benefit from continued participation in terms of additional development and training by clearly outlining his/her specific continued engagement within their Individual Learner Plan; or
(ii) Where completion of a project has been delayed for a short time for reasons outside the control of the Sponsor,
In general, criterion (i) above will be the main basis on which re-engagements will be considered while criterion (ii) is to be treated as exceptional. A maximum of 10% of current Part-Time Integration participants on a project can apply for re-engagement for a further year. This does not apply to Part Time Job Option participants.
For Part-Time Job Option participants, the Sponsor must again supply the details in writing at least 8 weeks before the project year ends, or the participant’s annual contract is due to expire. Persons considered “job-ready” by their Supervisor at their contract renewal time will not be extended into a further year.
The operating procedures for Community Employment are kept under review and are updated regularly. All amendments are notified to Department staff and CE Sponsors as soon as they are agreed.
72. Deputy Jack Wall asked the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding arrears in respect of a person (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19727/14]
View answerThe person concerned, who was an employee of the Department for 23 years, was suspended on full pay from the 25th October 2011 until his dismissal from the Civil Service on the 22nd February 2013.
All entitlements due to the person concerned were considered in full at the time of his dismissal and were paid accordingly. No arrears in respect of overtime or untaken annual leave were due for payment.
73. Deputy Joe Higgins asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons this year to date who have had their jobseeker's benefit or allowance reduced or suspended for refusing to engage with labour activation schemes. [19740/14]
View answerLegislation provides that penalties in the form of reduced payments may be imposed by a Deciding Officer where clients fail, without good cause, to comply with activation measures.
Activation measures include the requirement to attend group or individual meetings, and/or avail of suitable education, training or development opportunities, or specified employment programmes ( e.g. Community Employment), which are considered appropriate to a person’s circumstances.
A total of 1,113 penalty rates were applied in 2014, to end March.
74. Deputy Joe Higgins asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who have had their jobseeker's benefit or allowance reduced or suspended for refusing to engage with labour activation schemes in the first half of 2013; and the number in the second half of 2013. [19741/14]
View answerLegislation provides that penalties in the form of reduced payments may be imposed by a Deciding Officer where clients fail, without good cause, to comply with activation measures.
Activation measures include the requirement to attend group or individual meetings, and/or avail of suitable education, training or development opportunities, or specified employment programmes, which are considered appropriate to a person’s circumstances. A total of 3,395 penalties were applied during 2013.
75. Deputy Joe Higgins asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who have had their jobseeker's benefit or allowance reduced or suspended this year to date for refusing to take part in JobBridge under the youth guarantee. [19742/14]
View answerJobBridge is a voluntary scheme and sanctions are not applicable where a jobseeker decides not to avail of it. Therefore, no penalty rates or reductions have applied to date for failure to avail of the scheme.
Under the Youth Guarantee Implementation Plan, the Department is developing a variant of the JobBridge scheme for the most disadvantaged young people.
Under this variant, employers will be asked to make work experience places available for young people aged 18 to 25 who have low levels of educational attainment, long periods of unemployment and other social barriers to employment. It is proposed that, at any one time, 1,500 young people will have access to this variant of the JobBridge internship. Places will be ring-fenced for this group of clients and the internships will not be advertised for general availability.
Candidates will be selected and referred to the scheme by the Department and will receive, or will have already completed, work preparation courses prior to commencement. The Department will work extensively with Job Clubs, Local Employment Services and Education and Training Boards to prepare the candidates for the work experience prior to starting their internship.
The participation of clients, once referred, will be non-discretionary and penalty rate sanctions will apply to a jobseeker who fails, without good cause, to participate in this variant of the scheme.
76. Deputy Joe Higgins asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who have had their jobseeker's benefit or allowance reduced or suspended for refusing to take part in the gateway scheme. [19743/14]
View answerGateway is a work placement initiative for county and city councils. The initiative aims to improve the employability and maintain the work readiness of those who have been unemployed for 24 months or more. Similar to Tús, participants are selected by a random process conducted by the Department from those persons in receipt of a jobseekers allowance payment for 24 months or more. Responsibility for delivery of this initiative rests with each county and city council.
As of 28th April, 177 participants were working on and in receipt of a Gateway payment.
To date, some 3,550 jobseekers have been invited to participate on Gateway. Of these, a total of 32 jobseekers to date have had their jobseekers allowance claim closed on grounds of non-entitlement and a further 4 jobseekers were subject of a disqualification of payment of up to 9 weeks for failure to engage with an employment activation scheme.
77. Deputy Joe Higgins asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of employers taking part in the JobBridge scheme that have been given a warning for giving participants in the scheme allowances for travel or food or any other expenses. [19744/14]
View answer96. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on extending the timeframe for internships under the JobBridge scheme to more than the maximum of nine months in order that persons on the scheme can receive additional experience; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19882/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 77 and 96 together.
A host organisation is permitted to reimburse an intern for out of pocket expenses incurred as part of the internship. However, expenses should not be provided for normal activities such as travel to and from the intern's base and normal personal expenditure. Payments other than out of pocket expenses by a host organisation are likely to have potential Benefit in Kind impacts and may also affect an individual’s social welfare status. To date, the Department has not issued any formal warnings to individual host organisations for payment of travel, food or normal personal expenditure.
JobBridge is a tailored labour market intervention for facilitating jobseekers in gaining skills and real workplace experience to increase their employability. The Department considers the maximum 9 month duration of a single internship necessary to prevent displacement of employees and to give the intern a broad range of experiences, possibly in the same sector but in a range of working environments. In September, 2013, the scheme was amended to allow individuals avail of a maximum of three JobBridge internships. However, the total cumulative time spent on the scheme cannot exceed 18 months and the intern is not permitted to do more than one internship with the same company.
Government initiatives such as Jobs Plus are in place to incentivise employers to take on jobseekers who have been on the Live Register for at least 1 year. JobBridge interns who complete a 9 month internship are eligible for this initiative.
79. Deputy Stephen S. Donnelly asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide in tabular form for the years 2009 to 2013 the annual number of companies that have applied for statutory redundancy payments; the number of persons to which these applications related; and the number of persons to whom statutory redundancy payments were made. [19746/14]
View answerIt is not possible to provide a breakdown of the number of companies that have made applications for statutory redundancy payments from the Department. However, details in relation to the number of persons in respect of whom applications were received are being compiled at present. This information will be sent to the Deputy in writing as soon as possible.
80. Deputy Martin Ferris asked the Minister for Social Protection the reason a person (details supplied) in County Limerick has been waiting since 24 February for a decision on their appeal for jobseeker's allowance. [19760/14]
View answerThe Social Welfare Appeals Office has advised me that an appeal by the person concerned together with the relevant Departmental papers were received by that office on 27 February 2014 and that the case was referred to an Appeals Officer on 28 April 2014 who will make a summary decision on the appeal based on the documentary evidence presented or, if required, hold an oral hearing.
The Social Welfare Appeals Office functions independently of the Minister for Social Protection and of the Department and is responsible for determining appeals against decisions in relation to social welfare entitlements.
81. D'fhiafraigh Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív den Aire Coimirce Sóisialaí an bhfuil socrú á dhéanamh chun oifig leasa shóisialaigh a oscailt i nGaeltacht Chonamara; cén uair a bhfuil sé i gceist aici oifig den sórt sin a chur ar bun; cá mhéad ball foirne a bheidh lonnaithe inti; an mbeidh Gaeilge líofa ag an bhfoireann ar fad agus cad iad na seirbhísí a bheidh á gcur ar fáil ón oifig sin; agus an ndéanfaidh sí ráiteas ina thaobh. [19764/14]
View answerNíl aon chinneadh déanta oifig leasa shóisialaigh a oscailt i nGaeltacht Chonamara. Tá seirbhís ar fáil anois ó oifigí na Roinne i gcathair na Gaillimhe agus sa Chlochán. Tá baill foirne sna hoifigí sin atá in ann seirbhís Ghaeilge a chur ar fáil agus beidh sé sin amhlaidh feasta. Féadann custaiméirí dul i dteagmháil leis an tseirbhís ar an bhfón, i r-phoist, tríd an bpost nó trí ghlaoch ar an oifig.
