2,400 long-term jobless taken off dole by JobsPlus scheme

The Government’s Jobs-Plus scheme has managed to take almost 2,400 long-term unemployed people off the dole in the last year — the majority of them people who had been out of work for more than two years.

The scheme, which was launched in July 2013, provides a direct monthly financial incentive to employers who recruit employees from people on the live register. According to the Department of Social Protection it is “biased” in favour of those who are longer-term unemployed”.

The incentive programme provides employers with two levels of payment: €7,500 over two years where a jobseeker who is 12-24 months on the live register is recruited; and €10,000 for each person recruited who has been unemployed for more than 24 months.

The subsidy is paid in monthly instalments but only as long as the employment is maintained.

In order to prevent it from being used to replace existing staff with cheaper labour the scheme is only available to employers when filling new positions that arise as a consequence of natural turnover.

The department has said that employers must give details of workforce prior to application and that, where an increase in the workforce is not evident, employers will be asked to provide additional information.

The department said that since its launch last July, JobsPlus has concluded arrangements to “support” 2,385 jobseekers in full-time employment. They have been taken on by 1,811 employers.

It said approximately 60% of the jobseekers had been on the dole for more than 24 months at the time of recruitment and that it is processing 247 further applications.

The largest number of jobseekers who have been found work via the scheme are in Dublin — 659, or 27.6%, followed by Cork (206, or 8.6%) and Galway (129, or 5.4%).

A department spokesman said 3,867 employers have registered for Jobs-Plus to date, and of those 3,678 have been approved and 66 have been rejected, usually because a tax certificate is out of date.

Social Protection Minister Joan Burton said: “Three in five of the people who have returned to work through JobsPlus had been unemployed for two years or more. This is the group which typically finds it hardest to return to work and therefore is at risk of long-term welfare dependency. The true success of JobsPlus is that the scheme is breaking that vicious circle — and working for jobseekers and employers alike.”