Category — Community & Amenity

Tánaiste announces a number of measures to help those who are unemployed

I am pleased to be able to report to you that  the  Tánaiste  and  Minister  for  Enterprise,  Trade  and  Employment, Ms. Mary Coughlan,  T.D., announced a number of measures  to  help those who are unemployed.  The measures are in line with the commitments made in the Government’s “Building Ireland’s Smart Economy”framework for economic renewal and are as follows:

 “The Department of Social and Family Affairs (DSFA) and

FÁS  are  working  closely  together  to  respond  quickly  to  the rise in

unemployment.  In  particular, FÁS’ Employment Services together with Local

Employment  Services  are  putting  in  place  measures designed to provide

increased  capacity for the rise in referrals from the Department of Social

and  Family  Affairs  and  the  increased  number of unemployed seeking job

search  assistance  voluntarily.   These  measures include direct referrals

from  DSFA  to  the  Partnership-run  Local  Employment  Services  and  the

redeployment of staff to the employment services area.

 

“The implementation of these measures will increase capacity from 6,500 per

month to 12,250 per month.

 

“FÁS  will  provide  an additional 51,000 places over the 27,000 previously

planned  in  2009  under  the Bridging Foundation Training, Specific Skills

Training  and  Traineeships Programmes. These programmes will provide short

training courses for job-changers or those who are recently unemployed.

 

“An examination is underway to review the outputs of the Community Training

Centres  Training  and Local Training Initiatives which provide training to

early school leavers and longer-term unemployed respectively”.

 

“The  Tánaiste  added  that  efforts  will continue to be be made to create

additional  capacity  within  current resources and that this could involve

the  development  of  new  programmes.  In this context the Government will

bring  forward  further  measures to ensure that those on the live register

receive  the  appropriate training and upskilling so as to be in a position

to contribute to the economy when the upturn occurs.

Welfare forms now available online for Jobseekers

I am pleased to announce that application forms for Jobseekers Benefit and Jobseekers Allowance are available for the first time to download from the Department of Social and Family Affairs website www.welfare.ie, by clicking on the “Recently Unemployed?” link.

This will mean that people who are making a repeat claim (i.e. renewing a claim that they had initially made within the past two years) can now download and complete the UP 6 form.  All other people can download and complete the UP1 form before going to their Social Welfare Office. 

Minister for Social & Family Affairs Mary Hanafin said this development “was part of a series of service improvement measures being brought in to help speed up the process for those who have lost their jobs or have been put on reduced working hours.  Having the forms available online means that one stage of the application process is taken out for men and women seeking their entitlements.  There is also a great deal of information on the welfare website which means that people can take time to read the forms and understand what’s required  before making their claim.

Being able to have the forms filled out in advance of arriving in the social welfare office and having the appropriate documents, such as P45 and photographic ID such as driver’s licence or passport, will help both the jobseeker and the offices processing claims.”

Minister Hanafin said that “in the last three months of 2008 staff in Social Welfare offices throughout the country processed 155,000 claims – that was an increase of 74% on the same period in the previous year. All our staff are very conscious of the pressures that members of the public are under when coming into the offices to claim jobseekers payments. 

To further help speed up processing claims, four Central Decisions Units are also being set up in Dublin city centre, Sligo, Finglas and Carrick-on-Shannon, each of which will have 10 staff processing and deciding on claims.  They will be able to process claims from offices in various regions which are experiencing an increased claimload and backlogs in processing.

We are looking at implementing a range of initiatives and are continually reviewing our claims processing system to help us deal with the unprecedented increase in claims for jobseekers payments.”

As Chairperson of the DATAS I am delighted that I have been successful on behalf of the committee in securing committments for funding of 30000 approx for the refurbishment of a unit in St. Patricks Woollen Mills. This funding will allow us to make the unit habitable for those in our community who belong to the Douglas Young at Heart Group and the Foroige Douglas Youth Action Group and many more. We have to insulated stud partitions , Internal Finishes to kitchen and office, suspended Ceilings and to install the necessary electrical and Mechanical work.

The Young at Heart Group wonderfully managed by my good friend Phil Goodman have lots of activities including Bowling, dancing, Knitting for the Maternity Unit at Cork University Hospital, Cards, Go for Life ,Silver Surfers and much more.

The Douglas Youth Action managed by Sonya Coakley and her group under the auspices of Foroige have Games Consoles,Film Club, Youth Club ,Basketball, Crafts Fair, Make up classes, Games and lots of fun and have ambitions for many other fun filled times.

I am really delighted to see this dream of mine come to fruition since I first got elected I resolved to try and ensure that some facilities were provided in the community. The DATAS Study conducted by UCC Bev Cotton and funded by the Dept of Health some years ago highlights the deficit in community facilities (viewers may read the study on my web site next week.)