Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 3 October 2023
390. Deputy Richard Bruton asked the Minister for Social Protection if she will indicate the waiting period of claims before social welfare recipients become eligible for back to education, work placement programmes, community employment, training support grant and JobsPlus; and if she has considered the change in these waiting periods or their standardisation. [42135/23]
View answerThe Department provides a range of supports to assist individuals to return to employment. The supports referred to by the Deputy are interventions designed to address differing requirements at various times during a persons transition to employment, taking into account a number of factors including duration of unemployment. It would not be appropriate to set standard waiting periods. A short narrative of the various supports and qualifying timeline is set out as follows:
Back to Education Allowance provides income support for jobseekers and others in receipt of certain social welfare payments who pursue courses of education at further or higher level. Applicants for the Back to Education Allowance scheme must satisfy certain conditions including being in receipt of a qualifying payment for a specified time, which is 3 months for further education courses and 9 months for higher education courses.
Work Placement Experience Programme is a work experience programme that aims to provide jobseekers who have never had a job or who have lost employment with an opportunity to gain meaningful work experience. The programme assists participants with relevant work and personal development skills in a supportive environment while on a work placement, with a view to increasing their employment prospects. Jobseekers can qualify if they have been unemployed and in receipt of a qualifying social welfare for 6 months. Other social welfare recipients such as those in receipt of One Parent Family Payment or Disability payments can qualify without waiting days where conditions of their scheme are met.
Community Employment (CE) Scheme is designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis. To participate on CE a person must generally be in receipt of a qualifying payment for 12 months or more with some exceptions.
Training Support Grant provides quick access to short-term training to support jobseekers access work opportunities. The grant is used to meet a skills gap or training need where this cannot be provided by a state provider within a reasonable time, and in cases where an intervention is needed to access a work opportunity. To be eligible for the Training Support Grant a customer must be in receipt of a qualifying payment and meet the conditions of the scheme. There is no waiting period.
JobsPlus is an incentive designed to encourage employers and businesses to focus their recruitment efforts on those who have been out of work for long periods and on young people seeking employment. It provides employers with two levels of payment: €7,500 or €10,000 over two years, with the level of payment depending on the age of the jobseeker and their circumstances.
Applicants aged under 30 are eligible once they have been in receipt of a qualifying payment for 4 months in the previous 6 months. For applicants aged over 30 the qualifying period is 12 months. There is no qualifying period for persons with Refugee status or for recipients of the Jobseekers Transition payment. The JobsPlus scheme was expanded from January 2023 to provide the higher level of grants to employers who employ people from certain disadvantaged and minority groups who have been in receipt of a qualifying payment for 4 months in the previous 6 months.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
