New Pilot Initiative to extend Community Employment (CE) eligibility to people over 50 years of age

New Pilot Initiative to extend Community Employment (CE)

eligibility to people over 50 years of age signing for

Credits/Jobseekers Benefit (JB) + Credits from 13 th May 2024.

This is to advise you of the new pilot initiative to extend Community

Employment (CE) eligibility to people over 50 years of age signing for Credits or a

combination of Jobseekers’ Benefit and Credits for 12 months or more from Monday, 13 th

May 2024. We are all aware of the current vacancy numbers on CE and the associated

recruitment challenges.

The Department intends to reach out and offer a voluntary Intreo employment support

service to people over 50 years old, signing for credits. As part of this initiative, CE will now

be extended to this group of people signing for credits for more than 12 months, or with a

combination of Jobseekers Benefit and Credits Only Claims for more than 12 months, with

the opportunity to participate on CE whilst receiving the CE single rate of €259.50.

People currently on credits from age 50 to 61 years will be initially contacted directly by the

Department’s Employment Support Teams to advise them of the value of CE as a stepping-

stone to employment and to invite them to express an interest in participating. The same CE

rules will apply to this group regards duration, training and development and other

requirements as to all other CE participants. Those interested in CE will then contact the

Department to discuss the options available to them and may subsequently be referred to a

suitable CE vacancy.

The inclusion of this eligibility criteria opens up CE to a wider cohort of people and you, as a

CE sponsor, can play an integral role in identifying suitable people in your community to

participate on CE via this new eligibility route. Where potential CE candidates are identified

by you, these candidates will then need to contact the Department to confirm eligibility and

enable the referral before starting on CE.

If you have any queries on this, they can be directed to your DSP Community Development

Officer.

As you know, some of the benefits of participating on CE include:

 Availing of training and meaningful work experience for 19.5 hours per week

 A paid weekly allowance

 CE participants pay PRSI at Class A8/A9, which counts as a full Class A contribution

 CE participants can apply for the National Childcare Scheme (NCS)

There are a number of ways for you to promote CE, such as local newsletters, posters etc. in

local areas such as community centres along with social media.

An online information video on the subject of CE can be accessed by smartphone, laptop or

PC via this link: https://vimeo.com/523868167 or by typing ‘Community Employment video’

in the Google search engine.

This video provides a sample of the types of work done by CE participants and a number of

testimonials from CE participants. This link could be made available on your social

media/website to promote CE.