The back to education allowance (BTEA) is one of a range of activation supports and policies with the objective of assisting social welfare recipients to improve their life chances by facilitating access to employment, work experience, education and training. The focus of the back to education allowance scheme is to assist those who are most marginalised and distant from the labour market to acquire the necessary education to improve their chances of becoming independent of the social welfare system.
A person wishing to pursue BTEA will have to satisfy a number of conditions such as being a certain age, being in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment such as jobseekers' benefit for a specified time period, pursuing a full time course of study in a recognised college and progressing in the level of education held by the client with reference to the national framework of qualifications.
For BTEA purposes the course being pursued, including ‘farm courses' must be full-time and must lead to a qualification that is:
recognised by the Department of Education and Skills or,
has Further Education and Training Awards Council recognition (FETAC) or,
has Higher Education and Training Awards Council recognition(HETAC).
BTEA is paid at the maximum personal rate of the social welfare payment that qualifies the person and in addition an annual €500 cost of education allowance is payable.
Participants of part-time courses may qualify for the part-time education option (PTEO) available under the jobseeker schemes. The PTEO enables unemployed persons to attend part-time courses of education or training and retain their jobseekers allowance or jobseekers benefit provided they continue to satisfy the conditions of the jobseeker scheme, including being available for and genuinely seeking employment.
Under the PTEO, payment continues for the duration of the jobseeker's claim. A person on jobseeker's benefit who exhausts his/her benefit will have to apply for jobseekers allowance in the normal way. Jobseekers allowance is subject to a means test. Participation under the PTEO does not confer any additional or extended entitlement to a social welfare payment nor are any additional allowances paid in conjunction with it.