Community Employment (CE) is a positive initiative that enables the long-term unemployed to make a contribution to their communities whilst up-skilling themselves for prospective future employment. It helps to break the cycle of unemployment and improve a person’s chances of returning to the labour market.
A number of new conditions were introduced on CE in July 2017 to further support progression and broaden access to CE to a wider range of people. In general, all CE placements for new entrants aged between 21 and 55 years will be for 1 year. However, CE participants who are working towards a major educational or training award can seek to extend participation by up to two years to enable them to reach the required standard of qualification. In addition, those over 55 years of age can remain on CE for three years.
An overall lifetime limit of 6 years will apply to all CE participants (7 years for those from a disability payment). A person may re-qualify for CE after 12 months of being in receipt of a qualifying payment, provided they have not reached their lifetime limit.
Participants over age 62 are allowed to participate on a continuous basis up to the State Pension age on the CE Service Support Stream (SSS), subject to availability of places on the SSS, satisfactory performance on the scheme and to annual approval by the Department. The places allocated for these participants within each individual CE scheme are subject to limitation criteria.
The Department has no current plans to abolish or to extend the six-year rule on CE schemes for those aged over 55. I am mindful of ensuring that there is capacity on the scheme, within the financial allocation available to my Department, to enable other jobseekers access to the work experience and training opportunities available through Community Employment.
While I appreciate that there are some participants who would like to stay on the scheme, the Deputy will appreciate that any extension would have a knock-on effect on others who wish to participate.
