Welfare penalty spike tied to JobPath

There has been a tripling in the last three years in the numbers of claimants who have had penalties imposed on their social welfare payments — and JobPath has been linked to the significant increase.

In 2015, penalty rates were applied to 5,325 welfare claimants by the Department of Social Protection. But by October of this year, the figure had already reached 14,637.

Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty pointed out that, to qualify for a jobseeker payment, a person must meet certain conditions, including the requirement to be available for, capable of and genuinely seeking full-time work.

“A range of sanctions, including disqualification, closure or disallowance of the jobseeker claim, may be imposed where a client fails to meet the stated conditions,” she said. “In addition, the activation process requires jobseekers to attend group or individual meetings, and/or avail of suitable education, training or development opportunities, or specified employment programmes, which are considered appropriate to the individual person’s circumstances.”

The reductions can be as much as €44 per week. Furthermore, in July 2013, the Government introduced the tougher sanction of up to nine weeks’ disqualification from payment where a jobseeker who had had a penalty rate imposed for 21 days, continued to fail to engage.

Social Democrat joint-leader Catherine Murphy pointed out that the rise in penalties had come as the numbers on social welfare had dropped significantly and she linked the increase to the JobPath employment activation service.

According to figures from the Department, up to the end of October 2017 approximately 9,000, or 6.9% of the total 129,000 people who engaged with the JobPath service between July 2015 and October 2017 had, at some point, a penalty rate applied to their payment.

She said she had encountered people who were working part-time who faced losing that job if they agreed to be signed up to JobPath roles. In other cases, the JobPath scheme offered was unrelated to their qualification and others had faced possible sanction for failing to turn up to an appointment because they could not get out of their part-time work.

Ms Murphy said there needs to be greater flexibility as the whole point is to assist people in getting back into sustainable employment.

Meanwhile, the Department of Social Protection identified almost 35% fewer cases of welfare fraud in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2016 — yet the value of the cases is almost the same for both periods.

There were 8,352 cases of fraud with a value of €31.1m identified up to the end of September. That compared to 12,902 cases with a value of €32.6m over the nine months in 2016.

The department said there were 76,000 cases of social welfare overpayments in the whole of 2016 valued at €110m. “In the period January to end September 2017 some 52,425 cases of overpayments were recorded valued at €88m,” it said.

The department said in terms of actual monies recovered, €62m had been taken in for the period January to end of September 2017.