Welfare claims face job deadline

Up to 2,000 welfare recipients who did not co-operate with job opportunities and incentives have had their claims reviewed.

Welfare offices have also cut the pay of nearly 450 dole claimants under a new work incentive measure, figures show.

The details come as it was confirmed that welfare claimants will be given deadlines to return to find work.

The measure is part of a campaign to boost employment, called Pathways to Work, and will be launched by Social Protection Minister Joan Burton next month.

The “probability of exit” date from claiming welfare will be decided by officials

According to department sources, claimants will be contacted after three months of being on welfare and assisted in getting a job.

Several hundred unemployed people who have failed to engage with welfare services have had their dole cut by as much as €40 a week, according to figures obtained by the Irish Examiner.

A scheme introduced last April allows dole offices to reduce welfare and has seen 437 cuts to claimants. Another 2,000 have been investigated after failing to turn up for potential job opportunities or related interviews and help schemes.

The measures next month will see claimants categorised according to the risk of being long-term unemployed. Welfare office officials will base judgments on employment history, English proficiency, area of residence, child dependency and marital status, among other criteria.

“The key benefit of the new profiling system is that it will identify those who are most likely to fall into long-term unemployment at a very early stage — in fact at the point of initial engagement with the service,” explained a department source.

“This will enable early intervention and intensive engagement with those individuals who demonstrate characteristics that suggest that they may fall into long term unemployment.”

A memo on the new measure was signed off on by the cabinet before Christmas.

The new profiling system is already live and being piloted in four dole offices in Dun Laoghaire, Tullamore, Kings Inn [Dublin city] and Sligo.