JobPath continues in 2021 despite job protection rate of just 8% to 10%

The Department of Social Protection has confirmed the JobPath employment scheme will be extended.

The Department of Social Protection has confirmed the JobPath employment scheme will be extended into 2021, despite the fact its job progression for those who take up the scheme is around 8% to 10%.

This is the second extension that has been granted to the scheme since the Dáil voted to end referrals of jobseekers in April 2019.

The Government has paid €252.3m to two companies, Seetec and Turas Nua, to operate JobPath since 2015, according to new figures from the department.

There were 217,181 jobseekers referred to and who engaged with the scheme for the years 2017 to 2020.

The service peaked in 2017 with 74,881 clients and continues on a downward trend to 30,918 in 2020. The most expensive year was 2018, with over €71m paid out.

Opposition politicians have questioned the value for money of the scheme.

A Sinn Féin report in 2018 found many jobseekers felt threatened to enter the programme because they were told they would lose their social welfare payments if they did not attend, while others such as substitute teachers say they were forced give up their jobs due to the demanding nature of attending the scheme and no understanding given to the nature of on-call roles.

Similar reports were made last year by opposition politicians during Public Accounts Committee hearings.

Documentation obtained by RTÉ last year shows that both companies involved experience staffing problems, including a high staff turnover and staff shortages.

The new figures were obtained by Fianna Fáil TD Dara Calleary, who said: "This is a massive level of investment into one particular programme.

"I am currently analysing the expenditure on JobPath versus expenditure on other employment services such as the Local Employment Service and also Employment Schemes such as CE. I intend to prepare an overview of all the services and engage with colleagues accordingly."

The Department of Social Protection says it provides a range of support for long-term unemployed jobseekers and "those most distant from the labour market" to secure full-time paid employment. These supports include Community Employment and JobPath.

"The programme helps break the cycle of unemployment and improve a person’s chances of returning to the labour market," the department added.

"The JobPath contracts operate on the basis of a payment-by-results model. With the exception of the client registration fee (which is structured so that it is insufficient to cover the JobPath provider’s costs) all other fees paid to the JobPath providers are on the basis of the client sustaining employment. 

"Once the person secures employment, and it is sustained for a minimum of 13 weeks, the JobPath provider may claim a job sustainment fee. The JobPath service provider may claim a total of four job sustainment fees for successive 13-week periods of employment."