Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 July 2016
303. Deputy Kevin O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Social Protection if he will consider amending the community employment programme for participants over the age of 60 by increasing the number of places allocated within each individual scheme from 7% to include all participants over that age category to remain on the scheme until they reach retirement age. [19506/16]
View answerCommunity Employment (CE) is a labour market activation programme which helps long-term unemployed people (those 12-months or more in receipt of a jobseeker’s payment) and other disadvantaged groups to re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine. It is designed to be a temporary fixed-term activation intervention. The programme assists participants to enhance and develop both their technical and personal skills which can then be used in the workplace. The overall number of places on CE is limited to 25,300 in 2016.
CE is open to participants aged up to 65 years of age who meet the current eligibility criteria. A pilot initiative was introduced in December 2015 to enable those aged 62 and over to extend their participation beyond the standard maximum participation limits (currently set at 6 years cumulative lifetime participation) providing the eligibility conditions are met. Participants aged 62 and over, are allowed to participate on a continuous basis up to the state pension age, subject to satisfactory performance on the scheme and to annual approval by the Department. The places allocated for participants over 62 years within each individual CE scheme are limited to 7% of each scheme’s overall budgeted places. This limit allows for the maximum utilisation of the remaining places on the scheme for the long-term unemployed and other disadvantaged groups in line with the scheme aims. An adjustment to enable all CE participants over 60 years of age to remain until retirement age would cause the percentage of such places to increase continuously which has the consequence of reducing the number of places available to all other target cohorts. As this initiative was only introduced at the end of December 2015, I am satisfied that the limit of 7% should remain.
However, with the ongoing welcome reductions in the live register, I believe that a review of work schemes, including CE, will be necessary to ensure that the number and nature of schemes and the conditions governing participation continue to be appropriate. I will be considering all of these issues over the coming months.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
