Seán Sherlock
Question:343. Deputy Sean Sherlock asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will advise on the issue of community employment supervisors (details supplied). [7178/22]
View answerThursday, 10 February 2022
Questions (343)
Written answers
Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the valuable and dedicated service that Community Employment (CE) sponsoring bodies provide in running CE schemes throughout the country. CE supervisors, as employees of those organisations, are an integral part of that good work.
CE is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and others with an opportunity to engage in training and useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis. The programme is delivered through independent CE sponsoring bodies who receive annual contracts from my department. CE sponsoring bodies are the legal employers of CE supervisors, CE assistant supervisors and CE participants. It should be noted that CE supervisors, CE assistant supervisors and CE participants are not public servants or employees of the Department or the state.
CE sponsoring bodies receive state funding to cover the salary costs of supervisors, assistant supervisors and participant remuneration, along with training and material costs from the department. As CE is a working age activation scheme, funding is provided on the basis that participants and supervisors on the schemes are of working age. As a consequence, funding for CE supervisors (and participants) ceases when the person reaches State Pension age. As you will appreciate, if my department continues to fund CE supervisors that have reached the State Pension age it would significantly impact on the opportunities for those people who are still of working age and would also undermine CE as an active labour market programme.
Accordingly, it is not intended to extend funding for CE supervisors beyond the state retirement age which is currently set at 66.
I trust this clarifies matters for the Deputy.