Flaws in grant initiative must be revised to address current skills shortage, says Adult Learning Organisation
5 Mar 2008 01:58 PM
AONTAS, the Adult Learning Organisation is calling on the government to take immediate action to make major changes to the Back to Education Allowance scheme administered by the Department of Social and Family Affairs.
The Back to Education allowance scheme was introduced in 1989 to provide an incentive to people on social welfare payments to improve their skills and qualifications so that they could return to employment. Qualifying for the Back to Education Allowance may also entitle an adult learner to other benefits, such as the top up grant, or rent allowance. People on low incomes are currently not entitled to the scheme. As Labour Spokesperson on Education Ruairi Quinn T.D. highlighted early this week, this means that 'during a three year degree course a person trying to better their employment prospects will lose €64,000.'
In a written response to a parliamentary question earlier this week, Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Martin Cullen responded that he was 'satisfied that overall, the current arrangements ensure that the scheme continues to support those people who are more distant from the labour market.'
'It is important that incentives are in place to support people who may be long term unemployed to access education and training', said Berni Brady, AONTAS Director. 'But the economic climate in Ireland was very different when this incentive was first introduced with much higher unemployment levels. Many previously unemployed people are now in minimum wage and low paid low skilled jobs due to the buoyancy in the Irish economy over the last decade. But these people now need to avail of education and training opportunities in order to improve their job prospects. One of the serious issues currently facing the Irish government is the task of up skilling 170,000 members of the workforce. Changes to the Back to Education Allowance would give these workers, who currently are on low incomes a serious incentive to pursue upskilling and further education.'
'What we have here is a classic example of what happens when there is a lack of joined-up government in this country', continued Ms Brady. 'While the Department of Social and Family Affairs is busy introducing new initiatives such as activation, they are not listening to what the Department of Education and Science is actually saying.'
Meanwhile in a press release issued by the Department of Social and Family Affairs on Thursday of this week, Minister Cullen stated that 'a key challenge is to maximise the number who are in employment and to continually improve the quality of the jobs that they have.' Ms Brady remarked 'Surely the way to ensure that people have better quality jobs is to help them access education. Instead of getting caught up with bureaucracy, the government must take immediate steps to ensure that low paid, low skilled workers are eligible for the scheme. With these sort of anomalies, is it any wonder that our record of upskilling as adults is so poor in comparison with other countries.'
Stephen Stewart, an adult learner found himself the victim of the contradictions within the system. Having left school at the age of 16 with his intermediate certificate and working as a painter for several years, at 39 Stephen decided to go back to education to improve his skills. He was told that he did not qualify for the Back to Education Allowance, as a low income earner. But he was even more puzzled to discover that because he failed to qualify for the allowance, he was also not eligible for other supports such as the special maintenance or 'top-up' grant. 'The only way to have a good chance of successfully completing a college course is to have one year's unemployment history and qualify for all the assistance offered by various government bodies. This system is a disincentive to work, he concluded. 'It penalises those on low pay.'
ENDS
