The Government is planning to use the personal information of thousands of people on the Live Register to help target training and education at those at highest risk of becoming long-term unemployed.
Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin said yesterday that many people signing on have high skill levels and a long work history, making intervention less necessary.
Instead, the main target of its resources will be on those who are older, with poor literacy or numeracy skills, and a longer history of unemployment.
Through a new profiling system which examines claimants’ education levels and other indicators, Minister Hanafin said officials will be able to target support at those who need it most.
“Prevention of long-term unemployment must be our priority,” Ms Hanafin said. “There is a range of supports in place to encourage and facilitate people on social welfare payments to take up work and training options, through the back to work and back to education allowances.”
Ms Hanafin was speaking at the publication of an ESRI report which tracked 60,000 people on the Live Register over an 18-month period to identify those at most risk of long-term unemployment.
The findings were largely as expected, including those who are older, live in less well-off areas, have previously participated in the community employment (CE) schemes and have a relatively low standard of education. Other findings were not expected. For example, women who are married were less likely than single women to leave the Live Register, as are those women whose spouses are high earners.
The authors of the ESRI report said its profiling model could be used as the basis for a national system to target support at those who need it most.
“If implemented, the system could rank claimants according to their risk of becoming long-term unemployed, providing a fair and rigorous basis on which to allocate interventions and to target those most at risk of long-term unemployment,” the report says.
It adds that to make full use of the benefits of the system, profiling will need to be combined with good quality training and employment programmes that enhance people’s employment prospects.
Ms Hanafin said that during the last 12 months almost 150,000 people left the Live Register because they secured employment, while a further 21,200 left to take up education or training.
“This is a positive trend that shows there are still jobs available and that the Government activation measures are assisting the unemployed to develop their skills and secure employment,” Ms Hanafin said.
Changes to social welfare legislation introduced earlier this year will allow for the collection of personal information relating to claimants.
Ms Hanafin added: “We are currently examining the remaining steps, such as capturing the information at initial claim stage which could ultimately lead to the introduction of the system nationally and changes to IT systems.”
