€260m JobPath scheme has 'not delivered value for money', report says

The committee has recommended that the Department explore “other avenues to provide better value through localised, non-profit driven employment services”.

The Department of Social Protection’s JobPath model of jobseekers assistance has “not delivered value for money”, according to a report to be delivered this afternoon.

The Public Accounts Committee’s review of the Department’s spending, to be published today, states that in its opinion the controversial scheme “in the majority of cases… did not lead to sustainable employment for jobseekers”.

The committee has recommended that the Department explore “other avenues to provide better value through localised, non-profit driven employment services”.

JobPath was first introduced by the Department in 2014 and aims to reduce the levels of long-term unemployed by selecting people at random who have been out of work for some time to enter its mentorship programme.

The programme has come in for a great deal of criticism across its lifespan due to poor employment returns, with referrals due to be suspended at the end of 2021. However, extensions to the scheme have been granted twice over the past two years.

Some €260m has been spent on the programme since its inception, with a State outlay of €59m incurred in 2019, the last full year pre-Covid.

Last June the Irish Local Development Network said it is best placed to provide a “comprehensive” public employment service in the wake of the pandemic which it said would offer “greater value for money” than JobPath.

Job progression for those on JobPath, which is provided by external contractors Seetec and Turas Nua, is between 8% and 10%.

The PAC report states that the committee is of the opinion that “local employment service providers are best placed to operate employment activation programmes and that these should be prioritised during the development of all employment services”.

The PAC also noted however that currently Local Employment Services contracts are not tendered for using a public procurement process.

“The committee is of the opinion that this is not best practice and that all State services should be subject to a public procurement process,” the report states.

Other recommendations documented in the report include that the a control review commence “as soon as possible” regarding the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, which is currently being wound down, and that the Department continue its current policy of control surveys in terms of tracking irregular welfare payments attributable to fraud and processing errors as this “appears to provide substantial results”.

A timeline for the PUP review should be provided by the end of March 2022, the committee said.