JobsPlus scheme may be retooled to benefit older people

The Government’s JobsPlus scheme could be retooled to benefit older long-term unemployed people, with a report finding the group was underrepresented and less likely to succeed in staying off the Live Register.

The report’s findings chime with comments made by Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty, in which she said there was a “real challenge” in getting older people back into the labour market.

A recently-published focused policy assessment of the JobsPlus employment incentive scheme, conducted by the Department of Social Protection, looked at how it operated from July 2013 up until the end of last year and found it had some notable successes, including that more than 12,000 people who were long-term unemployed had gained employment through the scheme.

More than 8,000 employers had benefitted from JobsPlus grants and there are currently more than 4,000 employers approved for payment of a JobsPlus grant in respect of over 5,500 employees, numbers the department said “compare very favourably” with those from earlier schemes it replaced.

The report also said JobsPlus “has proven effective at getting people who were long-term unemployed off the Live Register”, with 87% of employees who participated in it staying off the Live Register between 30 and 36 months after their commencement date on the scheme. It said it was also effective in benefitting the long term unemployed.

However, success was more muted the higher the age profile. According to the report: “Workers over the age of 50 are under-represented on JobsPlus. Fewer than 10% of JobsPlus employees are in this age bracket.

“Around 40% of those who are long-term unemployed are over 50. An incentive could be added to the scheme to encourage the recruitment of older people who are long-term unemployed.”

Under the terms of the scheme, payments are made to employers from the date the new employee starts to work for them and are then made each month in arrears over a two year period.

The payments are at two levels: €7,500 for recruiting an employee who has been unemployed for between one and two years, and €10,000 for an employee who has been unemployed for more than two years.

The report shows that demand for the scheme increased steadily year-on-year and then more dramatically in 2016, from approximately 2,000 per month in April to 3,000 per month in August of last year.

The budget for the scheme also increased from €1.2m in 2013 to €27.24m in 2016.

An analysis of outcomes for a specific group of 1,727 employes who commenced on the scheme during a six month period from March to August 2014 found that more than 70% were male and almost two-thirds had been on the Live Register for more than two years.