People on dole are 17% less likely to find work

A MAJOR EU employment support system set up by the previous government to help people off the dole has actually made people 17% less likely to gain employment compared to people on the Live Register.

A study by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found that the National Employment Action Plan (NEAP) is having no effect on solving Ireland’s dole queue crisis.

The report, published this morning, has stated that people who access support from the scheme are 17% less likely to gain employment than their counterparts on the Live Register.

And in addition to this “negative impact”, the document has also noted that, over a specific two-year timeframe examined by the ESRI, the NEAP group failed to identify a quarter of all people eligible for help.

Under NEAP, anyone receiving the jobseekers’ allowance (JA) or the jobseekers’ benefit (JB) who has been on the Live Register for more than three months can receive support in finding work.

The ESRI followed 60,000 people who fell into this category between September 2006 and July 2008. These individuals included those who did not receive NEAP support, those who did and a third section of people who were receiving work location help from FÁS.

The report found that one-in-four of these people were not identified as eligible for new training or support from NEAP despite meeting the necessary criteria.

A further one-in-four were barred from accessing the support as they had previously accessed state help in finding work.

The ESRI said the latter issue “would appear to run counter to the underlying rationale of activation policies”. However, it warned that this concern was overshadowed by the fact those who did access the NEAP scheme were 17% less likely to find work than the other JA and JB sections identified.

“Comparing the outcomes of those who were referred for a Fás interview under the NEAP with a control group of those who were not referred, it was found that the NEAP was associated with a negative impact,” the report found.

“The chances of entering employment [are] 17% lower for those who went through the interview process. This suggests that the interview element of the NEAP was an ineffective route to employment.”

The ESRI said this situation may be partly caused by the fact those on the NEAP scheme are aware monitoring to ensure they are actively looking for work is inadequate.

As a result, the group’s report has recommended that more stringent monitoring measures be put in place.

It has also advised that a new system of identifying people who are likely to become long-term unemployed should be developed to help cut down on the cost to the state.

Since January, the Department of Social Protection has been given increased responsibility for unemployment “activation services” such as NEAP.

It is also introducing a case management system focussing on helping people back into employment instead of merely supplying income benefits.

It has also noted that the Social Welfare Act 2010 allows the department to impose “sanctions” on unemployed people who are “unreasonably refusing to participate in training, education and employment”.