Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 8 September 2022
1149. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will provide a breakdown of the various supports or incentives provided to employers hiring workers with disabilities, such as, but not limited to, the wage subsidy scheme for persons with disabilities, and the annual expenditure relating to each support over the past five years, in tabular form. [43539/22]
View answerIn addition to income supports, my Department provides a wide range of supports for jobseekers/existing employees with disabilities and specific financial incentives for private sector employers, to encourage them to recruit and retain jobseekers with disabilities.
It is important to note that the below grants and financial incentives are demand led, i.e. the overall value of the grants issued each year rises or falls in response to the number and value of the grants applied for.
The supports provided by the Department are:
Reasonable Accommodation Fund.
The Reasonable Accommodation Fund includes four grants. The grants have been designed to assist jobseekers and existing employees with disabilities, and to encourage employers in the private sector to recruit Jobseekers with disabilities.
The four grants are the:
1. 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, a grant is available towards the costs of adapting premises or equipment.
A maximum grant of €6,350 can be given 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.
2. 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 funded. The amount of the grant payable is based on an hourly fee paid which may vary. 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. In addition, the grant can also be used to cover travel costs for the interpreter – the cost of public transport or, if not available, a set rate per kilometre is applied.
3. 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 payable is based on an hourly fee paid to the reader, in line with the current minimum wage, for an agreed period up to a maximum of 640 hours per year.
4. Employee Retention Grant
The Employee Retention Grant Scheme is available to assist employers to retain employees who acquire a disability. The grant provides funding to identify accommodation and/or training needs to enable the employee to remain in his/her current position. It can also be used to retrain the employee to take up another position within the company.
Funding varies from a maximum of €2,500 or 90% of eligible programme costs to fund an occupational capacity and workplace job assessment or to a maximum of €12,500 or 90% of eligible programme costs for training and job coach support.
Table 1: Value of RAF grants 2017-2021
|
GRANT |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
WEAG |
€95,744 |
€100,023 |
€81,984 |
€83,968 |
€65,118 |
|
JIIG |
€4,295 |
€6,361 |
€4,269 |
€4,027 |
€2,878 |
|
PRG |
€31,619 |
€12,464 |
€10,903 |
€18,970 |
€27,572 |
|
ERG |
€00 |
€1,900 |
€00 |
€00 |
€00 |
|
TOTAL |
€131,658 |
€120,748 |
€97,156 |
€106,965 |
€95,568 |
In addition to the above, the Department provides two additional specific supports for private sector employers, these are the Disability Awareness Support Scheme and the Wage Subsidy Scheme.
Disability Awareness Support Scheme.
The Disability Awareness Support Scheme (DASS) provides funding for private sector employers to arrange and pay for disability awareness training for staff who work with a colleague with a disability. Subject to meeting the conditions that apply, the funding available is in:
- the first year that a company applies is: 90% of eligible training costs up to a maximum of €20,000.
- the second and subsequent years: 80% of eligible training costs up to a maximum of €20,000 in any one calendar year
Table 2: Value of DASS grants 2017-2021
|
GRANT |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
DASS |
€2,295 |
€20,214 |
€80,146 |
€5,598 |
€15,884 |
The Wage Subsidy Scheme.
The Wage Subsidy Scheme is a financial incentive paid as a cash amount to private sector employers. The support seeks to encourage private sector employers to employ people with disabilities, where the employee has a perceived productivity deficit of at least 20% when compared to a peer in the same role without a disability.
The base rate of subsidy payable is €6.30 per hour, giving a total annual subsidy available of €12,776 per annum - based on a 39-hour week. Increases in the base rate are payable up to an effective rate of €9.45 per hour depending on the number of employees. The incentive 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 €6.30 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.
Table 3: Value of Wage Subsidy Scheme 2017-2021
|
GRANT |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|
WSS |
€20.8m |
€22.3m |
€23.8m |
€18.2m |
€17.2m (estimated) |
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
