You may qualify for participation in the CE Part-time Integration Option if:
You are aged 21 years or older and:
OR
You are aged 18 years and over and:
- A member of the Traveller community, unemployed and getting Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseeker’s Allowance for any period or One-Parent Family Payment for at least 1 year
- Getting Disability Allowance, Blind Person’s Pension or Invalidity Pension
- Getting Illness Benefit for at least 6 months
- A refugee authenticated by the Department of Justice and Equality (Garda Registration Certificate with Stamp 4) and getting a social welfare payment
- An ex-offender who has been referred by the Probation Service or other designated service, or an ex-offender not referred by a designated service who has been getting JA or JB for 12 months
- Referred following an appropriate assessment according to the National Drugs Rehabilitation Framework protocols
- Living on one of the offshore islands and currently in receipt of a CE-qualifying payment for 6 months or more
Part-Time Job Option
The CE Part-Time Job Option provides participants with part-time work placements for 1 year initially, with annually renewable contracts for another 2 years, subject to DSP approval and the availability of places and budget. This option is designed to give extended access to employment to older people who may have been unable to secure regular employment for some time.
You may qualify for participation in the CE Part-Time Job Option if:
You are aged 35 years or older and you:
- Have been getting any combination of the following payments: Jobseeker’s Benefit, Jobseeker’s Allowance, Jobseeker’s Transitional payment (JST), One-Parent Family Payment (OFP), Widow’s, Deserted Wife’s Benefit, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s Contributory Pension, Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Civil Partner’s Non-Contributory Pension or Farm Assist for at least 3 years – see ‘Eligibility period’ below.
- Getting Disability Allowance, Blind Person’s Pension or Invalidity Pension
- Getting Illness Benefit for at least 6 months
- An ex-offender who has been referred by the Probation Service or other designated service, or an ex-offender not referred by a designated service who has been getting JA or JB for 3 years
OR
You are 18 years of age or over and:
- A member of the Traveller community getting Jobseeker’s Benefit, Jobseeker’s Allowance or One-Parent Family Payment for at least 1 year
- A refugee authenticated by the Department of Justice and Equality (Garda Registration Certificate with Stamp 4) and getting a social welfare payment
- Referred following an appropriate assessment according to the National Drugs Rehabilitation Framework protocols’
- Living on one of the offshore islands and currently in receipt of a CE-qualifying payment for 6 months or more
Eligibility period
In general, the eligibility period is 1 year for the Part-time Integration Option and 3 years for the Part-time Job Option.
- If you were getting Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) prior to receiving Jobseeker’s Benefit, Jobseeker’s Allowance, One-Parent Family Payment, Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Partner’s Contributory Pension, Widow’s, Widower’s or Surviving Partner’s Non-Contributory Pension, Deserted Wife’s Benefit or Farm Assist, this time on SWA can also count towards the CE-qualifying period provided there are no breaks between different payments.
- If you were getting Carer’s Allowance this can also count towards the eligibility period but your caring responsibilities must have ceased and you must currently be getting either JA, JB. JST or OFP.
- Those getting JB or JA are allowed a maximum of 30 worked days in each of the qualifying years before starting a CE scheme when assessing eligibility.
- Time spent on one of the above disability payments can count towards the eligibility period, provided there is no break, for example, 3 months on Illness Benefit followed immediately by 9 months on Jobseeker’s Allowance or 12 months on Illness Benefit followed immediately by 24 months on Jobseeker’s Allowance.
- Time spent on CE no longer counts towards continued time on CE for new participants who start on or after 8 October 2012
- Generally, time spent on Tús, Gateway, Rural Social Scheme, JobBridge, Back to Education Allowance or Springboard will not count towards the eligibility period. There are some exceptions and you can read more about these and the other eligibility requirements for the Part-time Integration Option and thePart-time Job Option on welfare.ie.
