Terence Flanagan
Ceist:41. Deputy Terence Flanagan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection if she will address a matter (details supplied) regarding the long-term unemployed. [14006/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 15 April 2015
Ceisteanna (41)
Freagraí scríofa
The jobseeker's benefit and jobseeker’s allowance schemes provide income support for people who have lost work and are unable to find alternative full-time employment. The 2015 Estimates for the Department provide for expenditure this year on the jobseekers’ schemes of €3.01 billion.
Long-term unemployment refers to people with continuous periods of unemployment extending for a year or longer. The Government’s primary strategy to reduce long-term unemployment is through policies to create the environment for a strong economic recovery by promoting competitiveness and productivity. Economic recovery will underpin jobs growth. This strategy has been succeeding, with an increase of over 80,000 in employment over the last 2 years.
The Pathways to Work Strategy provides for enhanced engagement services and additional activation measures to jobseekers while the recovery takes hold. In addition to ongoing reforms, the 2015 iteration of the strategy prioritises additional measures to enhance engagement with the long-term unemployed. This includes a structured process of engagement with the existing long-term unemployed that will see at least 8,300 long-term unemployed people being referred to the activation process each month in early 2015.
Second, a new employment services model for the long-term unemployed, JobPath, will be rolled out in 2015. It is a payment by results contract model with third party providers of employment services that will provide additional capacity in order to engage more systematically with long-term unemployed jobseekers. Referrals to JobPath providers are expected to commence early in the second half of 2015.
In support of these enhanced engagement processes, 57,000 further education and training places will continue to be reserved for the long-term unemployed in 2015. A minimum of 16,000 places for the long-term unemployed will also be provided through key public employment programmes. This includes an expansion of the JobsPlus initiative, an employment subsidy that incentivises employers to recruit the long-term unemployed.
Information on numbers on the Live Register at the end of March 2015 is detailed in the following statement.
Live Register numbers by duration, end March 2015
|
<1 Year |
1-2yrs |
2-3yrs |
3-5yrs |
5-10yrs |
>10yrs |
Total |
|
188,273 |
42,426 |
26,429 |
38,467 |
44,679 |
8,402 |
348,676 |