Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 9 February 2017
138. Deputy John Brady asked the Minister for Social Protection the stage the report on the impact of reduced jobseeker's allowance for under 26s is at; when it will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6433/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe CSO’s latest monthly unemployment figures report that the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for persons aged 15-24 years (youth unemployment rate) was 13.5% in January 2017, a decrease from 14.4% in December 2016. This is a significant decrease of almost 5 percentage points, from 18.1%, in the past 12 months. The overall unemployment rate has fallen by 1.4 percentage points from 8.5% in January 2016 to 7.1% in January 2017.
Reduced rates for younger jobseeker’s allowance recipients were first introduced in 2009 and were further extended in subsequent budgets to apply to jobseekers under 26 years of age.
These measures were introduced as they were considered to prevent young people from entering welfare dependency by providing young jobseekers with a strong financial incentive to engage in education or training or to take up employment. Should a young jobseeker on a reduced jobseeker’s allowance payment participate on an education or training programme they will receive a higher weekly payment of €160. This rate will be further increased to €193 per week from September 2017.
The review of jobseeker’s allowance rates for young persons under 26 years of age will examine the effectiveness of the reduced rates in encouraging young jobseekers to avail of education, training, employment programmes and opportunities. As part of a wider effort to encourage and promote research based on the Department’s administrative data, researchers from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth have been provided with data on all JA claims since 2007 for persons aged under 28 years. They intend looking specifically at the impact of changes in rates on the duration of young people’s claims and on their subsequent employment experience after exiting from unemployment. Some preliminary analysis has been done and work is ongoing. I hope that this review will be completed in the coming months, subject to the necessary data being available and the required level of analysis involved being completed.
I am committed to ensuring my Department identifies effective measures to incentivise and support young people in finding and securing sustainable jobs. The best way to do this is through engagement processes and by incentivising them to avail of educational and training opportunities, thereby enhancing their employment prospects.
