Department for What Protection?

31 May 2010

In Budget 2010 a number of changes were announced to the social welfare system that required legislation before they could come into effect. The speed with which the Government rammed the Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act 2009 through the Dáil before Christmas, to cut social welfare payments to unemployed people and others, meant that the further changes announced would have to await a new Bill. This Bill was published late on Friday evening and is called the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2010.
So what does this Bill do? From an unemployed perspective it proposes that a "person shall be disqualified for receiving job-seeker's allowance where he or she has refused an offer of suitable employment." Who will decide what 'suitable' means? The INOU was surprised at this strengthening of existing Genuinely Seeking Work criteria attached to Jobseekers payments as in her post-Budget speech in December, the then Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Mary Hanafin, TD, said that "Jobseekers under age 66 who refuse a job offer, work placement or offer of a course will have their Jobseekers Allowance/Supplementary Welfare Allowance personal rate reduced to €150 per week."
The Bill also proposes to cut by €46 anyone who is over 25 and in receipt of a Jobseekers Allowance who "without good cause refused to participate, or to agree to participate" in a training course offered though their local Social Welfare office or FÁS. In Budget 2010 Jobseekers Allowance was further age segregated with new claimants aged 18-21 entitled to a maximum payment of €100 and 22-24 entitled to a maximum payment of €150. This change was called an 'incentivised scheme' by the Minister as young people would be entitled to a full payment if they took up a state training or education programme. This new Bill now proposes to penalise this age group further by cutting their maximum payments to €115 and €75 if they do not take up a training place offer.
At a time of unprecedented unemployment and a lack of job creation it seems extraordinary that the big stick approach is being applied when what is urgently required is a fit-for-purpose social welfare and employment service that strives to meet the needs of unemployed people and others and in particular supports them constructively to move from welfare to work.
There is one glaring omission from this Bill and that is the "New Employer Job PRSI Incentive Scheme" which at the time of the Budget was described as a "new Jobs stimulus measure" which "would apply where an employer creates a new job and takes on a person who has been unemployed for 6 months or more, the employer will be fully exempted from the liability to pay PRSI for the first year of that employment". The INOU had understood that this measure would be contained in this Bill. The organisation now understands that it will be introduced by Regulation and should be in place by the end of June.
Before this Bill becomes law it must pass through all Stages of each House of the Oireachtas. The INOU understands that at the Committee Stage proposed changes to Jobseekers Benefit will be introduced that will be similar to those announced for Jobseekers Allowance. The organisation is concerned at the on-going erosion to people's entitlements built up through their Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) payments which does not bode well for Ireland's future development.
The INOU will make a submission to Government on this Bill and its implications. Please let us know of any issues of concern you may have asap.