Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 November 2014
179. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection the work activation measures and schemes provided by her Department which are accessible to individuals who are signing on for credits but who do not qualify for a payment due to their means; if any of these schemes would provide such a person with a payment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41290/14]
View answerGiven the scale of unemployment, the key objective of activation policy and labour market initiatives has been to offer assistance to those most in need of support in securing work and achieving financial self-sufficiency. Accordingly the employment services and schemes provided by the Department are focused in the first instance on the cohort of people who are unemployed and in receipt of a social welfare payment (either Jobseekers Allowance or Jobseekers Benefit). There are no plans to make changes to these arrangements at present.
Despite this focus, access to training and employment programmes is also open to other groups under certain circumstances.
Thus, persons who have been signing for credits for three months (78 days) of the last six months are eligible to participate in the JobBridge programme. Interns, who had previously been signing on for credits will receive an allowance of €50. While on an internship, interns can commence casual employment without affecting their entitlements provided that it is not with the host organisation (i.e. not with the same employer) and it does not interfere with their internship. However, those signing for credits are still subject to the normal rules as regards availability for work. The Work Placement Programme is also open to persons not in receipt of a social welfare payment, although the participant will not receive a payment while on the programme.
Unemployed persons not in receipt of payments may also be eligible to avail of up-skilling opportunities, for example through ETB (formerly FÁS) training for unemployed people, or, if they have been signing for six months or more, through the Vocational Training Opportunities Scheme (VTOS). In these cases, such participants do not receive a training allowance but may receive travel and lunch allowances from the ETB. Persons signing on for credits for 12 months or longer over the previous 18 months are also entitled to participate on Momentum provided that they have been actively seeking work, however they will not receive any payment.
More generally, a range of services are available to persons who are unemployed but not in receipt of a social welfare payment. For example employment services, such as advice on job-search activities and the use of online job search tools, are available to people if they register with the Department’s employment services offices, regardless of their social welfare status.
In short, the Government is committed to supporting as many people as possible to participate more fully in employment and to become more self-sufficient by providing supports that address barriers they may encounter in finding and sustaining employment.
