Welfare benefits cut for 11,000 people who failed to engage with jobseekers services

'Jobseekers who do not engage with the Intreo employment service... can have their jobseeker’s payment reduced and subsequently be disqualified from their payment for up to nine weeks.' File picture

Over 11,000 people saw their social welfare rates reduced last year for failing to engage with employment services.

The Government has been cracking down on people in receipt of unemployment benefits for not attending meetings with the Department of Social Protection or engaging with employment support schemes.

Plans introduced under the last government doubled the penalty for non-engagement from €44 per week to €90 from January 2025.

In response to a parliamentary question from Carlow Kilkenny Fine Gael TD Catherine Callaghan, social protection minister Dara Calleary confirmed that 11,082 people saw their unemployment benefit rates reduced in 2025.

This was up from 10,232 in 2024, and 5,235 in 2023.

Mr Calleary said there are “rights and responsibilities” attached to people being eligible for jobseekers’ payments, and they are “conditional on the recipient being available for, capable of, and genuinely seeking work”.

He added: “Jobseekers who do not engage with the Intreo employment service or who fail to participate in appropriate employment interventions can have their jobseeker’s payment reduced and subsequently be disqualified from their payment for up to nine weeks.

Reducing payments is 'final step'

“They may also have their entitlement to a Jobseekers payment reviewed based on a failure to genuinely seek work.

“A reduced rate is a final step in a process to encourage a jobseeker to avail of the employment supports on offer, and once a jobseeker resumes engagement with the employment support service, the reduced rate is lifted immediately.”   

Figures published by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) confirmed that there were 170,700 people on Live Register in February.

• Louise Burne, Political Correspondent