Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 October 2020
513. Deputy Brian Stanley asked the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding community employment participants that are over 55 years of age; the maximum number of years they can be on the scheme; and the variation that may apply to those that entered community employment under the part-time jobs opportunity. [28268/20]
Amharc ar fhreagra516. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Social Protection the position with regard to the combined community employment procedures manual 2016 which states that persons over 55 years of age may stay employed on a community employment scheme for up to six years. [28316/20]
Amharc ar fhreagra517. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Social Protection the position regarding a statement currently on the Citizens' Information website which states that persons employed on a scheme prior to July 2017 can stay on the previously existing eligibility rules. [28317/20]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 513, 516 and 517 together.
The Community Employment (CE) Scheme is an active labour market programme designed to provide eligible long-term unemployed people and other disadvantaged persons with an opportunity to engage in useful work within their communities on a temporary, fixed term basis. A number of new conditions were introduced to the CE Scheme in July 2017 to further support progression to employment, broaden CE access to a wider range of people and to standardise the conditions relating to the length of time a CE participant can remain on a CE scheme. In general CE placements for new entrants aged between 21 and 55 years are for one year. CE participants who are working towards a Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI) major award can seek to extend their participation on CE by up to two years to enable them to reach the required standard of qualification. CE participants aged 55 years or older can remain on CE for three years and do not have to work towards a QQI major award. In either scenario, a maximum of three consecutive year’s participation is permissible. A person may re-qualify for CE after a 12 month break once they satisfy the qualifying conditions. An overall lifetime limit of six years applies to all CE participants (seven years for those on a disability payment). Prior to 2017, there were two available options for participating on CE. Both options commenced with one year of participation with the possibility of either one or two more years, depending on the option taken. Both options were subject to qualification criteria and neither required the CE participant to undertake any training resulting in the achievement of a major award.
In 2017 the new conditions and qualifying criteria were introduced and a saver clause was provided for the existing clients: ‘Participants who commenced on CE prior to 3rd July 2017 will be entitled to remain under their existing CE eligibility rules, where this is to their advantage. If it is more advantageous to the person, the current criteria can be applied.’
In response to the query relating to the Part Time Job option, the saver clause that was introduced allowed participants who commenced under that option to continue on CE for a maximum of 3 consecutive years with or without working towards a QQI major award, whichever was more advantageous.
The 2017 saver clause does not allow those affected to continue to participate on CE for six years consecutively. The same continuous limitation of three years continues to apply to all CE participants both pre and post 2017. Participation on CE was never intended to be long-term and the maximum continued participation on CE is three years.
In response to the query on the statement on the Citizens Information website which relates to the saver clause, the saver clause allowed existing CE participants to remain on CE for up to a maximum of three consecutive years subject to certain conditions. In response to the query relating to the 2016 Community Employment Procedures Manual, which states that an overall lifetime limit of six years applies to CE participants between 55 and up to the State Pension age, this was the position in 2016 and it remains the position today. However, since 2017 the six year life time limit has been extended to all CE participants.
