Pauline Tully
Question:704. Deputy Pauline Tully asked the Minister for Social Protection the measures she and her Department are taking to improve the employment supports available to people with disabilities. [47286/23]
View answerTuesday, 7 November 2023
Questions (704)
Written answers
The Department of Social Protection, through its nationwide network of Intreo centres, provides a case managed employment service for jobseekers with disabilities. The person works with an Employment Personal Advisor with a view to agreeing a suitable personal progression plan in order to access the full range of employment supports available.
The Department recognises the additional challenges that some people with disabilities may experience in securing and maintaining employment, and contracts specialist employment services, called EmployAbility, to help address this. A jobseeker with a disability who is working with their Intreo Employment Personal Advisor may be referred to these service providers if it is agreed that they would benefit from the type of services and support provided. Under EmployAbility the person works with a job coach who provides both pre-employment and in-employment support and assistance. Providers also deliver a recruitment and job matching service for employers.
In July 2022 Intreo commenced an Early Engagement process targeted at young recipients of a disability payment. Early engagement involves the Public Employment Service actively engaging with people with disabilities at the earliest opportunity, on a voluntary basis, to offer the above supports to assist them in achieving their employment ambitions. They are initially focusing on 18–25-year-olds, with further tranches to follow.
In August I announced a call for applications for a new programme to support the employment of people with disabilities under the new ESF+ funding. This programme, called WorkAbility: Inclusive Pathways to Employment Programme is a successor to the Ability programme. WorkAbility has an overall budget of up to €36.29million and will run from January 2024 to December 2028.
The programme is aimed at people with disabilities aged 16+ who are in the labour market or are currently not work ready and/or are distant from the labour market. The programme will support projects that provide progressive pathways into education, training and employment (including self-employment) for participants based on their needs, their abilities and their potential. The programme aims to support up to 5,000 disabled people progress their employment ambitions over its lifetime.
Both Disability Allowance and Blind Pension are structured to support recipients to avail of work opportunities, be that self-employment or insurable employment. When an individual commences employment, they can avail of an income disregard of €165 per week and above that a tapering applies. A person can earn up to €495.10 per week and still retain some of their payment. The earnings disregard for recipients of Disability Allowance has increased by almost 38% over the last three budgets from €120 to €140 to €165 currently.
The Partial Capacity Benefit scheme allows a person who has been in receipt of Invalidity Pension or Illness Benefit and who may not have full capacity for work, to enter or return to employment and continue to receive a partial or full payment. The Partial Capacity Benefit has been designed so there are no restrictions or limits on earnings from employment nor on the number of hours a person can work under the scheme.
The Reasonable Accommodation Fund grants support jobseekers and existing employees with disabilities, as well as private sector employers seeking to hire or retain a person with a disability.
I recently published a review of the Reasonable Accommodation Fund and another scheme called the Disability Awareness Support Scheme. The review made a number of recommendations including that they be amalgamated into a single flexible scheme and that the scheme is expanded to the community and voluntary sector. Work on implementation of these recommendations is underway and it is hoped to launch a reformed scheme in Q1 2024.
The Wage Subsidy Scheme is a support to encourage private sector employers to employ people with disabilities by means of a subsidy. The subsidy available is between €6.30 and €9.45 per hour depending on the number of employees supported by the scheme. Budget 2024 provided for the minimum weekly hours threshold for employers to avail of the Wage Subsidy Scheme to be reduced from 21 to 15 hours per week which takes effect from April 2024.
As part of the Green Paper on Disability Reform, employment supports for disabled people will continue to be kept under review.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.