Reality behind live register stats

Less than half of the 407,000 people who left the live register in the last year did so because they had found employment, figures from the Department of Social Protection show.

The statistics for live register departures between Oct 2012 and Sept 2013 were released by Minister Joan Bruton as part of a parliamentary question.

They show almost 36% of those who left the register were forced to stop claiming the dole because they were no longer entitled to unemployment benefit.

Her department said approximately a third of those claims were closed because the person had exhausted the duration of their jobseekers’ benefit. Benefit is paid for a maximum of 12 months, depending on the number of social insurance contributions made. That duration has been cut to nine months from entrants to jobseekers’ benefit since April of this year.

Just 135,000 — or a third — of the 407,000 actually declared they were leaving the register because they had found work.

However, the department said it was likely a large share who fell under the category of “no reason stated” would have found work. There were 48,964 people in that category.

Almost 30,000 of those who left the register did so because they had entered an education or training scheme or had taken up an employment placement. A similar number left because they had been placed on another welfare scheme.

The department was unable to say how many of the people who left the register did so because they had left the country to seek work elsewhere.

The total number on the live register at the last count at the start of October was 408,670, 20,665 fewer than at this time last year.