The Department of Social and Family Affairs has a range of employment and education supports available to people in receipt of social welfare payments. These initiatives are designed to assist people to return to the active labour force. The main supports available are the back to work allowance, the short-term enterprise allowance and the back to education allowance schemes. At week ended 30th October 2009, the total number of participants in the back to work allowance scheme was 6,617. This includes two strands; the back to work enterprise allowance with 4,405 and the back to work allowance (employee) with 2,212. The employee strand has been closed to new applications since 1st May 2009 but existing participants continue to receive payment.
A separate short-term enterprise allowance was introduced on 1st May 2009 for people who qualify for jobseeker's benefit, subject to certain conditions. The total number availing of this scheme at the end of October 2009 was 818. Figures for the back to education allowance are collated on the basis of the academic year. There were 11,646 people in receipt of allowance for the 2008/2009 academic year. The figures for the 2009/2010 academic year will be significantly higher with over 18,700 applications approved by the end of October 2009. The community employment scheme is administered by FÁS which is under the aegis of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Figures provided by FÁS show that there were 21,481 participants in community employment schemes at the end of October 2009. This figure excludes 1,417 supervisor posts.