Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 31 May 2016
503. Deputy Thomas P. Broughan asked the Minister for Social Protection the number of young persons under 25 years of age in receipt of disability allowance who have been supported to take an education, training and-or work experience place under the Youth Guarantee programme in both 2014 and 2015; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13412/16]
View answerInformation on the numbers of young people under 25 years of age in receipt of Disability Allowance who have been supported to take an education, training and or work experience place under the Youth Guarantee programme is not available in a readily accessible format and cannot be disaggregated at this point in time.
Under the Youth Guarantee the main innovation in dealing with young people on jobseekers’ payments relates to earlier engagement with this group than is normal under the general activation arrangements for unemployed people through INTREO. This means that young people on jobseekers’ payments are referred to a caseworker, and are engaged with more systematically in terms of their rights and responsibilities, at an earlier date than older unemployed people. For such young jobseekers, engagement with activation measures through the Intreo service is a mandatory condition for continued receipt of welfare payments.
Any young person with a disability is at all times free to avail of the INTREO service on a voluntary basis and a complete range of activation supports for people with disabilities is available at Intreo Centres. Young people with a disability, requiring activation/intervention supports, are referred immediately to a caseworker within Intreo or at the Local Employment Service (LES). There was thus no need to apply the new engagement arrangements to young people with disabilities.
A caseworker working with a young person with a disability can arrange access for that young client to the full range of services and programmes that are available to young people on jobseekers’ payments. This includes access to programmes such as JobBridge, the Back to Education Allowance, and SOLAS training for unemployed people. The Department is also currently considering how people with disabilities might best be included in any future iteration of the Momentum programme.
Over and above these general programmes, a caseworker dealing with a young person with a disability can arrange access to a range of additional services and supports that are specific to people with disabilities and are not available to other young jobseekers. These supports include EmployAbility, the Wage Subsidy Scheme, Community Employment, and Employment Supports including the following; Workplace Equipment Adaptation Grant; Job Interview\Personal Reader Grant; Employee Retention Grant Scheme; Disability Awareness Support Scheme.
Young people with disabilities also have access to the full range of SOLAS training courses for unemployed people and to Specialist Training Programme provision specific to their needs.
I hope this answers the Deputy's question.
