Claire Kerrane
Question:77. Deputy Claire Kerrane asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will carry out a review of the JobPath scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [15344/23]
View answerTuesday, 28 March 2023
Questions (77)
Oral answers (7 contributions)
Does the Minister intend to carry out a review of the JobPath scheme now that referrals to that scheme have ceased? Given the amount of taxpayers’ money that has been spent on JobPath, it is very important that the scheme be reviewed now that referrals have ceased or else to have a guarantee that such a review will take place once it is fully finished.
As the Deputy will be aware, referrals to the JobPath service have now ceased and the service is in a run-off phase, with only clients referred up to June 2022 remaining engaged with the service. Research into JobPath, including by the OECD, indicates that the programme led to positive employment and earnings outcomes across a variety of hard-to-reach groups.
As part of a restructuring of employment services, my Department has increased its employment service capacity delivered through Intreo and has expanded employment services in some areas of the State where there were no local employment services with the introduction of the new Intreo partners model - the Intreo partners local area employment service and the Intreo partners national employment service. Continuous stakeholder engagement with both local and national service providers has been key to both the development and successful implementation of this new employment services delivery model.
A distinctive client journey has been embedded into the employment services process whereby jobseekers on the live register, after engaging with Intreo in the first 12 months, are referred first to the Intreo partners national employment service, and after 24 months to the Intreo partners local area employment service, which is designed to engage with those with greater barriers to the labour market. In this way, the client is referred to the most appropriate service at each point in time on their client journey.
Employment is now at among the highest levels in the history of the State, with over 2.55 million people in employment. Notwithstanding this, my Department keeps all employment services and supports under review so they continue to meet the needs of our clients. A mid-term review of the actions and commitments in the Pathways to Work strategy is under way at present to ensure they remain relevant and effective in improving the employment prospects and outcomes for people under-represented in the labour market. A public consultation is ongoing with a closing date of this Friday, 31 March. I hope this answers the matter for the Deputy.
I thank the Minister for the reply. The JobPath scheme has cost over €322 million of taxpayers’ money. Any time I hear a Government representative speaking about JobPath, they speak of it as a success. However, I cannot understand how 350,488 people were referred to JobPath, some twice, some three times and a very few a fourth time, and then that was stopped. Some 29,041 people have found work that has been sustained for one year, which is 8% of total referrals finding a job for one year. At the committee in February, the Minister said some 32,000 people remain on the scheme. That leaves 318,000, and as 29,000 have got a job, it means some 289,000 people were referred to a scheme that cost over €300 million of taxpayers’ money and got nothing at the end of it. In light of that and of the fact that this is taxpayers’ money going to private companies, will the scheme be reviewed once it finishes?
As the Deputy knows, JobPath is being wound down. No new referrals are being made but existing participants are being allowed to finish their engagements, which is fair enough. With regard to a review, we already did a comprehensive review in conjunction with the OECD back in 2019. As the Deputy well knows, we have been through the findings many times before. In short, the OECD found that people who engaged with JobPath had a better chance of getting a job and were also more likely to have higher earnings than those who did not engage with the service. My focus is now very much on the future. JobPath was of its time. It was there at a time when we had high levels of unemployment. Thankfully, we are not in that space any more. The Government can be accused of a lot of things but the one thing we cannot be accused of is not helping people into work. We have record levels of employment in the country. More than 2.57 million people are at work. More people are working than ever before.
To be fair, I am not actually accusing the Government of anything but the figures speak for themselves. Some 350,000 people were referred to a scheme and 29,000 secured work that lasted for a year. It should also be borne in mind that referral fees of €311 were paid to private companies, in some instances two, three or four times in respect of the same person. Over €300 million of taxpayers' money was paid to private companies. We had great difficulty in getting information about the many fees involved in JobPath. We ended up getting it through the Committee of Public Accounts a number of years ago. I do not believe that review of 2019 is sufficient when we are talking about these amounts of taxpayers' money being paid out for a scheme that has not worked. Anyone in this House who would say that a success rate of 8% of people securing employment is value for money is joking. Given the level of taxpayers' money involved and the involvement of private companies, I again ask the Minister for the scheme to be reviewed with regard to the number of people who sourced employment. It is a very reasonable ask given the amount of money concerned.
As I said, we have been through this on a number of occasions. The Deputy has one view and I have a set of figures. JobPath is a mechanism through which support is provided to long-term unemployed jobseekers through access to employment assistance and advice for a period of 12 months. It follows a payment-by-results model and is associated with day-to-day operational costs. The risks were borne by the contractors. They are paid on the basis of performance and, with the exception of the initial registration fee, payments are made only when a client achieves sustained full-time employment. Job sustainment fees are payable for each of the 13-week periods of sustained employment, up to a maximum of 52 weeks. As of the end of January, some 351,273 jobseekers had commenced engagement with the JobPath service. In the same period, 87,528 jobseekers had commenced employment during their engagement with JobPath. As I said, my Department is currently doing a full review of the national employment strategy, Pathways to Work, because that strategy was launched during the pandemic when we thought we were going to have high levels of unemployment. We are in a different landscape now so we need to review Pathways to Work in the context of an economy that is at full employment.
Deputy Bríd Smith sends her apologies.
Question No. 78 taken with Written Answers.