The number of people in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance who have been sanctioned for failing to engage with Intreo employment services in the way required is set to double this year, according to new figures.
The Department of Social Protection said about 9,000 recipients had had payment reductions imposed up to the end of October, compared with roughly 5,200 for all of 2023.
“Payment reductions can be applied if a jobseeker, without good cause, fails to engage with employment services or refuses an offer of employment, training or specified employment programme which is considered appropriate to their circumstances,” the department said.
“The jobseeker can ultimately be disqualified from their jobseeker’s payment for up to nine weeks and their ongoing eligibility to the payment will be reviewed.”
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Outgoing Minister for Social Protection Heather Humphreys has previously said the required engagement measure was intended to provide support to claimants and help them back into the workforce. In May, she said some 50,000 claimants were being signed up to programmes that included fortnightly meetings with advisers.
The Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed (INOU) said that, in addition to the increase in the number of people being sanctioned, the Social Welfare Act passed last month also allows the amounts withheld from recipients to double, from €44 per week to €90.
“Sanctions and penalties should only ever be used as a last resort,” said INOU director Brid O’Brien. “Proactively supporting people who are vulnerable in the labour market would be a more constructive way to proceed, seeking to assist people to make meaningful choices.”
The department, meanwhile, said the amount of money recovered from claimants who received overpayments is also on course to increase this year.
“Up to end of October 2024, provisional figures indicate that some €81 million in overpayments has been recovered,” it said. “State pensions account for approximately 31 per cent of recoveries, jobseeker’s payments account for approximately 27 per cent and illness-related payments approximately 12 per cent. The remainder is made up from recoveries from several other schemes.”
It said the total amount recovered in 2023 was €87 million, with a slightly higher proportion of that accounted for by recovered pension overpayments.
In most cases, the department said: “Recovery is sought over a period without imposing undue financial hardship on the customer. The department will work with the customer and consider personal circumstances in determining a repayment plan.”
There have been a number of high-profile prosecutions with regard to ongoing claims of the State pensions of people who have died.
At the start of November, 73 year-old Margaret Bergin, from Fairfield House in Mountrath in Co Laois was jailed for two years for falsely claiming her dead father-in-law’s pension for more than 28 years to the value of €271,000. John Bergin had died in 1993 aged 82.
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