A range of government employment initiatives are available for unemployed people who are in receipt of a social welfare payment. The aim of these initiatives is to encourage jobseekers to engage in employment opportunities. 

Follow the links on this page for details of employment programmes.

This scheme is for people who have been getting Jobseeker’s Allowance for 15 months or more and is intended as a stepping stone to full-time work. It allows certain long-term unemployed people to take up part-time work (up to 24 hours per week) and get a special weekly allowance instead of their jobseeker’s payment.

Recipients of the Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme must be available for and seeking full-time work while getting the payment. 

This initative applies to community and voluntary sector work placement programmes. 

Community and Voluntary Sector organisations will be able to develop and deliver services locally and benefit from the skills and experience the unemployed person can bring. Participants will benefit by being involved in work and those who participate will improve their work readiness and will be able to apply their current skills and learn new ones.

Community Employment (CE) is an employment programme which helps long-term unemployed (at least 12 months) people to re-enter the workforce by breaking their experience of unemployment through a return to work routine.

The CE programme aims to enhance and develop both technical and personal skills which can then be used in the workplace. The CE programme is generally sponsored by groups wishing to benefit the local community, namely voluntary organisations and public bodies involved in not-for-profit activities. The training provided through Community Employment is delivered within a Quality Assurance framework.

See details of recognised QQI Awards and qualifications which can be achieved and which lead to major awards on the National Framework of Qualifications. A CE applicant who needs childcare in order to take up a place in a CE schemes is eligible for a CE childcare place.

For further detail in relation to how CE childcare places are managed please contact your CE Sponsor or click here.

To participate in the CE programme, you must: Register at your local Employment Services Office and Meet certain Eligibility Criteria.The Department provides financial support in the form of Allowances and Funding to assist with the programme, for example participant wages, supervisor grants, materials grants, and specific skills training grants.

For further information click here

Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (Self-Employed)

The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) scheme encourages people getting certain social welfare payments to become self-employed. If you take part in the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme you can keep a percentage of your social welfare payment for up to 2 years.

A Back to Work Scheme called the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance started in May 2009. There is no qualifying period for the Short-Term Enterprise Allowance. You can get immediate access to the allowance if you meet the qualifying conditions.

The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance is payable to people aged under 66 and to be eligible you must be:

• Setting up as self-employed in a business that has been approved in advance in writing by a Jobs Facilitator or Partnership Company
• Getting one of the qualifying payments below for at least 9 months:
  • Jobseeker's Allowance 
  • Jobseeker's Benefit     
  • One-Parent Family Payment
  • Blind Pension
  • Disability Allowance
  • Carer's Allowance (having stopped caring duties)
  • Farm Assist
  • Invalidity Pension
  • Incapacity Supplement
  • Pre-Retirement Allowance
  • Widow's/Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Non-Contributory) Pension
  • Deserted Wife's Benefit or Allowance
  • Prisoner's Wife's Allowance or
  • Illness Benefit for 3 or more years.

The Rural Social Scheme (RSS) is aimed at low-income farmers and fishermen/women.

To qualify for the RSS you must be getting a social welfare payment. In return, people participating in the RSS provide services that benefit rural communities. For example:

• Maintaining and enhancing various walking routes
• Energy conservation work for older people and those at risk of poverty
• Village and countryside enhancement projects
• Social care and care of older people
• Community care for pre-school and after-school groups
• Environmental maintenance work
• Projects relating to not-for-profit cultural and heritage centres
• Community administration or clerical work
• Any other appropriate community based project identified during the scheme

Participants in the scheme work 19.5 hours per week. These hours are to ensure participation on the scheme does not affect your farming/fishing activities. A mimimum payment of €215.50 applies. 

If you get a place on the RSS Scheme, you are offered a contract from your start date for up to 22 months. 

A new Youth Employment Support Scheme (YESS), was announced in Budget 2018. The First Steps programme is being closed to facilitate the introduction of a new Youth Employment Support Scheme (YESS). 

The voluntary scheme is aimed at young jobseekers who are long-term unemployed or who face significant barriers to gaining employment. YESS aims to provide an opportunity to learn basic work and social skills in a supportive environment while on a work placement. 

The scheme will begin in the second quarter of 2018. It will be open to jobseekers and other eligible persons aged between 18 and 24 who have

a) been out of work and in receipt of a qualifying payment for at least 12 months or,

b) if unemployed for less than 12 months, are considered by a caseworker to face a significant barrier to work.

Candidates must also be in receipt of certain eligible social welfare payments.

Full details are available here

A new Back to Work Family Dividend was introduced for lone parent and long-term jobseeker families with children who find or return to work.

It also applies to lone parent and long-term jobseeker families with children who commence or return to self-employment.

The Back to Work Family Dividend can be paid with Working Family Payment (WFP) and is not taken into account in the means test for WFP. 

For more information: click here