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JOBBRIDGE – the Government’s flagship employment programme – cost €54,739,000 last year, according to figures released today from the Department of Social Protection.
The scheme – which gives participants who are on social welfare an extra €50 a week for work carried out with certain employers – was launched by Minister Joan Burton in June 2011, and cost just under €8 million that year.
The almost 600 per cent increase in expenditure on the programme last year pushed the overall bill for ‘Working Age Employment Supports’ up by 10.4 per cent, to almost €952 million. The figure for this year is expected to exceed a billion euro.
In the same category, there was an 11 per cent increase in expenditure on the ‘Enterprise Allowance’ – rising from €114 m to €127 m.
Total social welfare spending for 2012 was almost €20.8 billion. That’s a decrease of just over one per cent on 2011, but still represents 40.6 per cent of all day-to-day Government expenditure.
The most costly areas were Pensions (30.2 per cent of the Department’s total budget), Working Age Income Supports (28.8 per cent), Working Age Employment Supports (4.6 per cent), Illness, Disability and Caring (16.1 per cent), Children (11.5 pre cent) and Supplementary Payments (5.7 per cent).
Commenting on the figures, Minister Burton has been talking-up the Government’s focus on scheme’s like JobBridge, which she says are transforming the benefits system from a “passive” to an “active” experience for recipients:
Our service does not stop at merely providing a jobseeker’s payment to somebody who is out of work. We also provide the employment supports to help that person back into work, training or education.That is why we spent over €950 million last year on schemes such as Community Employment, Tús, JobBridge, and the Back to Work and Back to Education Allowances.
The number of people in receipt of a weekly welfare payment has risen by 260,000 since the start of the downturn – from €1.209 million people at the end of 2008 to €1.469 million at the end last year. According to the Minister:
We have catered for that increase while contributing to the Government’s deficit reduction programme in order to bring the public finances under control. Therefore, it can be fairly said that the Department has risen to the challenge of implementing unprecedented structural reform while contributing significantly to the necessary consolidation in the public finances and, most importantly, offering a safety net to those who need it.
The Department dealt with 2,046,194 registered claims during 2012 that were finalised – of which 1,717,380, or 84%, were awarded. The remainder were either disallowed or withdrawn by the applicant.
One example of where we, and this entire EU project, are going wrong.
Under EU Regulations, the country of employment pays the family benefits even though the family may reside in another EU member state.
Eurostat figures;-
Polish population in Ireland – 115,000, or almost 3% of the population.
Irish population in Poland – 189, or only 0.0001% of the population.
Monthly child benefit in Ireland – first child (130 euros) two children (260 euros), three children (390 euros), four children (530 euros), five (670 euros), six (810 euros), seven (950 euros), eight (1,090 euros).
Poland – 11 euros a month – for each child no matter how many.
It’s even less – or nothing – in other eastern European countries.
Ireland is bankrupt, borrowing a billion euros a month. Poland, and others, are not.
Hmmmm………can you spot the flaw in the system?
Should we all be racists now Father? Only the farm takes up most of the day and at night I just like a cup of tea. I might not be able to devote myself full time to the old racism.
Has the definition of racism been expanded to include comparisons between tax and welfare systems? “Iceland let the banks go to the wall, Ireland bailed them out”. sh1t I must hate Icelanders now. People like you weaken the word and exhaust it.
What has racism got to do with anything I’ve written?
In your warped reality every criticism of a policy is a criticism of another nationality ( get it right), or race.
You see Declan you’ve made a comparison between yourself and someone who isn’t irish, therefore your a racist….I think that’s how it goes nowadays. Seriously though, Eighties, way off the mark there. I mean waaay off. the fact that our vastly higher child welfare rates are paid to children who have never set foot in Ireland is ridiculous. Pay the rate I. The country they reside, if its here, fair enough.
Why?
And only a couple of years ago it was €165 for first and second child as well as €1000 per year Working parent’s Childcare allowance, whether you were working on not. For those on 8th child….could you imagine how much was coming in? And they didn’t check if you were working either.
14% of the unemployed people are taking 40% of all the country’s expenditure nice,slash social welfare for people who have never worked,and make people sign on every day at different times
Make people sign on every day. Wat 2hinder them looking for jobs? Sounds like a solid plan Der boss
Whenever I see or read about this JobBridge buineach I remember Kenny & Co illegally stealing funds from my private pension account,
If its 50 a week for a person on full time. Thats little over 2500 a year. How is it costing as much as they say. There must be alot of people being exploited by this system Joan sell out set up. Your working for little over half minimum wage. So saying the live register is coming down is really people doing slave labour when you think of it. I got these cheese burgers.
JobBridge costs the taxpayer 54 million per year. With only 4 million population that’s around 1.5 million per person per annum and 1.25 million are working???
Not sure about your arithmetic there, Susanna.
The figure if €55 million equates to 22,000 job bridge positions. In May 2012 there were just 5,000 position filled. Odd numbers
Slave labor? No. You have to feed, clothe and house slaves. At half minimum wage, and requiring them to feed, clothe and house themselves, you’ve got feudalism.
Wait till Bulgaria and co have free movement that will be fun cant see tgem moving to poland
You need a refreshers course in our immigration policy, Bulgarians are free to come and work and live in Ireland and have been for a number of years. But their not queuing up to come over here seeing as there’s no work and contrary to popular belief, they need, along with polish, lithuanians etc, to have been in continued employment for a minimum two years before they can claim any benefits here. If your gona have a pop at anyone, direct it towards Joan Burton & this jobbridge scam that I believe is taking many paid job positions out of the market place
Then why is the uk going to try and stop them moving on the 1 January 2014 , think you should do a bit of reading up your self, they can claim family allowance and other stuff , take school places , now run along you fool
Second of all mr harper every eu citizen of the EU can have there social welfare transferred to a other EU state wile seeking employment so your 2year rule is another bulshit story told by goverment , you should read the EU charter before making stupid comments you know nothing about
Job Bridge & all the rest are merely PR stunts to make it look like politicians are doing something or, in fact, to put blame on the victims (the unemployed). They have not had, & cannot have, any real impact on the job restoration or creation needed right across the Euro zone & beyond.
The problem is the ‘growth fairy’ austerity dogma, being universally applied, that flies completely in the face of Keynes (macro economics 101) ‘paradox of thrift’, and replicates precisely the mistakes of the 1930s that created the Great Depression from a financial crisis.
The fact that Irish & other mainstream economists have either acquiesced or encouraged these policies is an utter disgrace & deserves mass resignations.
Here’s couple of pieces for further reading:
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of the Telegraph reports on Euro zone reality (desperately trying to prevent further implosion & failure before September’s German elections) :
And Professor Bill Mitchell (one of very few economists in the world who has understood macro economics correctly & consistently predicted the Euro failure). Here he assesses the IMF’s latest Orwellian report on Euro ‘progress’ :-
To my knowledge this jobs bridge was €50 and the social welfare which comes to €238 a week. Ur work would want to be outside the door, how could u afford to travel to work anywhere on that !!!
I travelled from Monaghan to Dublin 5 days a week to do my Jobsbridge internship… Hadn’t two pennies to rub together but I got a full time job out of it, so sacrificing my sanity for 6 months paid off!!
Are people automatically entitled to full dole plus fifty a week even if their original dole is less
dont think so, ask at citizens information.
@Declan Conway. Yes you’re right. Still if there was €100 on offer there’d be a much bigger take up. €50 to cover expenses fares ect and to spend on yourself
a young lad gets 100 euro on jobseekers,he gets a placement for an extra 50 euro per week on top of the 100,he works hard all day,his co-worker is employed and does the same job for nearly 400 per week,both are able to do the same work and hours,and the lads not guaranteed a secure job and if he refuses to take the placement he wont be payed at all so he has no choice but to accept it. i dont see how thats fair.
have your say