Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 December 2017
500. Deputy James Browne asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection her plans to extend the allowable period for persons to work under the community employment scheme; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52720/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department provides a range of activation supports catering for long-term unemployed jobseekers and those most distant from the labour market. These supports include employment programmes such as Community Employment (CE). The purpose of CE is to help a person re-enter the active workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine. Participation on CE is intended to be for a temporary fixed-term. Participation limits are in place to ensure that as many unemployed people as possible are able to benefit from the scheme and to meet the scheme’s objectives of breaking the cycle of unemployment and maintain work readiness, thereby improving a person’s opportunities of returning to the labour market.
International evidence does not advocate a long-term dependency on work programmes. While it is accepted that these schemes serve a role in times of high unemployment, the evidence points to longer duration participation being prone to ‘locking’ unemployed people into programmes, rather than engaging them to actively search for jobs.
Following the publication of my Department’s Report - An Analysis of the Community Employment (CE) Programme – earlier in the year, the Government approved a number of changes to the terms and conditions around participation on CE. The main purpose of these changes is to broaden the availability of CE to a greater number of people on the live register, to standardise eligibility and other conditions regarding the length of time a person can participate on the programme and to promote progression outcomes.
The changes, which have been in effect since early July 2017, have seen the general qualifying age for CE, for those on the live register, reduced from 25 to 21 years. It is also now easier for previous participants, who have exhausted their CE entitlement, to requalify as participation prior to the year 2007 will be disregarded. While participants between 21 and 55 years can avail of one year on the programme, this can be extended on approval by my Department by up to 2 more years if they are working towards a major award/industry recognised equivalent to support their progression to employment. CE participants aged 55 and over can now avail of up to 3 consecutive years on a scheme. An overall lifetime limit of 6 years will apply to CE participants (7 years if on a disability payment). A person may re-qualify for CE after 12 months of being in receipt of a qualifying social welfare payment, provided they have not reached their 6 year overall lifetime limit.
This Government is also very conscious of the valuable contribution that programmes such as CE are making in the provision of services to individuals and communities across Ireland.
I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
