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Employment Support Services

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 1 July 2021

Thursday, 1 July 2021

Questions (305)

Róisín Shortall

Question:

305. Deputy Róisín Shortall asked the Minister for Social Protection the funding currently devoted to disability grants and other supports for employers and to the promotion of these amongst employers. [35689/21]

View answer

Written answers

Through the Comprehensive Employment Strategy, the Government recognises the importance for people with disabilities of participation in employment. As part of the strategy, the Department of Social Protection (DSP) is committed to improving employment outcomes and removing barriers to employment for persons with a disability.

The DSP supports for people with disabilities have been designed to enable persons with a disability to achieve their employment ambitions by focusing on the individual person’s ability and capacity rather than taking an approach that focuses on a particular type of disability.

The Department provides a range of work related supports for employers who recruit and employ people with disabilities, these include:

Wage Subsidy Scheme

The Wage Subsidy Scheme is targeted at private sector employers and is aimed at encouraging the employment of people with disabilities through the provision of financial incentives (a wage subsidy). The subsidy is delivered in three strands:

- Strand I subsidy is a general subsidy for any productivity shortfall in excess of 20% for a person with a disability, in comparison to a colleague without a disability. An employee must work for a minimum of 21 hours per week up to a maximum of 39 subsidised hours per week. The rate of subsidy is €5.30 per hour and the amount of the subsidy is based on the number of hours worked.

- Strand II subsidy is payable when an employer employs three or more people with a disability who are supported by a WSS Strand I payment. Strand II is intended to cover the additional supervisory, management and other work based costs relating to these employees. This top-up payment is a percentage of the Strand I subsidy and is based on the overall number of employees with a disability employed under Strand I. It ranges from an additional 10% of wage subsidy for 3 to 6 employees with a disability to a maximum of 50% of wage subsidy for 23+ employees with a disability.

- Strand III subsidy enables employers who employ 25 or more workers with a disability on the Wage Subsidy Scheme to be eligible for a grant of up to €30,000 per year towards the expense of employing an Employment Assistance Officer to support these employees.

Reasonable Accommodation Fund Grants (RAFG)

The Reasonable Accommodation Fund Grants (RAFGs) assist both jobseekers/employees with disabilities and employers seeking to support an employee who has or acquires a disability or when employing a jobseeker with a disability. These grants and supports include;

Workplace Equipment / Adaptation Grant

Where a person with a disability has been offered employment, is in employment or is self-employed and requires a more accessible workplace or adapted equipment to do the job, s/he or the employer may be able to get a grant towards the costs of adapting premises or equipment. A maximum grant of €6,350 is available towards the cost of adaptations to premises or equipment. Applications in excess of this sum are considered on an individual basis up to a maximum of €9,523 if specialist training for assistive technology is required.

Employee Retention Grant

The purpose of the Employee Retention Grant Scheme is to assist employers to retain employees who acquire a disability by providing funding to:

- Identify accommodation and / or training to enable the employee to remain in his/her current position; or

- Re-train the employee so that s/he can take up another position within the company

Funding is provided in two stages

Stage 1. This stage is subject to a maximum of €2,500 or 90% of eligible programme costs per employee to:

- hire specialists to evaluate the employee’s occupational capacity;

- and conduct a workplace or job assessment to develop an individualised written Retention Strategy.

Stage 2. This stage is subject to a maximum of €12,500 or 90% of eligible programme costs per employee to:

- train the employee for their current position or to retrain them for another position within the company;

- hire a Job Coach to offer support to the employee, and liaise with the employee’s line manager for a maximum period of 300 hours; and

- hire a specialist to manage the Retention Strategy on an ongoing basis until reintegration is complete for a maximum period of 60 hours.

Job Interview Interpreter Grant

A jobseeker who is deaf, hard of hearing or has speech impairment and is attending job interviews, may apply for funding to have a sign language interpreter or other interpreter to attend interviews. A three hour period for each interview can be applied for. A person may have several interviews arranged and can apply for funding for each (there is no limit to the number of interviews a person can attend with an interpreter).

Funding is also available to cover the cost of an interpreter to assist a person during the induction process, when he/she starts work with a private sector employer. A maximum of three hours interpreter support is available, to be utilised by the person as he/she feels is needed

Both the interview interpreter funding and in-employment interpreter support funding, for induction can be provided.

Personal Reader Grant

A person employed in the private sector who is (or is becoming) blind or visually impaired, and who needs assistance with job-related reading, can apply for a grant to support them to employ a Personal Reader. The amount of the grant payable is based on an hourly fee paid to the reader, in line with the current minimum wage, for an agreed period - for a maximum of 640 hours per year.

In addition to RAFG, the Disability Awareness Support Scheme (DASS) provides a contribution towards the cost of disability awareness training for private sector employers. The training to be delivered must, for example, provide clear and accurate information about disability, address questions that employers/employees may have, and cover anti-discrimination / equal opportunities legislation. Funding. An employer may apply for funding for 90% of eligible training costs up to a maximum of €20,000. In second and subsequent years they may apply for 80% of eligible training costs up to a maximum of €20,000.

The Department has made efforts to improve employer awareness of incentives for hiring people with disabilities in recent years through the creation of the central Key Account Managers Team (KAMs) and the locally based Employer Relations Teams. As part of their work with employers to fill their recruitment needs, the Employer Relations Teams around the country promote the use of the Wage Subsidy Scheme and the Reasonable Accommodation Fund to encourage businesses to consider providing a work place opportunity for a person with a disability. Also the Department supports a number of events for employers and jobseekers, such as Intreo Work & Skills week and Job fairs, which have a heavy focus on supports for people with disabilities.

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