Scheme Questions

How you qualify for a CE scheme depends on your age and your personal situation?

If you are aged between 21 and 55 years

In general, you must be unemployed. You must also be getting any combination of the following payments for at least 12 months:

• Jobseeker's Benefit (JB)

• Jobseeker's Allowance (JA)

• Jobseeker's Transitional payment (JST)

• One-Parent Family Payment (OFP)

• Deserted Wife’s Benefit

• Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's Contributory Pension

• Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's Non-Contributory Pension or

• Farm Assist

If you are aged 21 and over, and are getting JB or JA, you can have worked up to 30 days in the 12 months before starting the CE scheme and still be eligible for the scheme.

If you were getting basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) before getting one of the payments listed above, the time on SWA can also count towards the qualifying period for CE, provided there are no breaks between different payments – for example, if you spent 2 months on SWA followed immediately by 10 months on Jobseeker’s Allowance.

If you were getting Carer's Allowance (CA), half-rate Carers Allowance or Carers Benefit the time spent on these payments can also count towards the eligibility period, but your caring responsibilities must have ceased and you must currently be getting one of the qualifying payments .

Time spent on a CE-qualifying disability-related payment can count towards the eligibility period, provided there is no break – for example, if you spent 3 months on Illness Benefit followed immediately by 9 months on Jobseeker’s Allowance.

Time spent on a recognised training course such as SOLAS/ETB, a VTOS course, Youthreach or in prison may count as part of the qualifying period.

People on the JobPath programme and the Tús scheme are eligible for CE.

Schemes that do not count towards the qualifying period for CE

Generally, time spent on Gateway, Rural Social Scheme, Springboard or getting Back to Education Allowance will not count towards the eligibility period.

Time spent as a qualified adult dependant on another person’s claim does not count towards CE eligibility.

If you are aged 55 years and over

You must be getting a qualifying social welfare payment for 12 months – as outlined above for people aged between 21 and 55 years. You can stay on CE for a maximum of 3 consecutive years. It may be possible to re-qualify for CE after a further 12 months on a qualifying payment. See information below for participants aged 60 and over.

If you are aged 60 years and over

CE participants aged 60 years and over who meet the eligibility requirements may stay continuously on CE up to the age at which they qualify for a State pension, providing there are places available.

Other ways to qualify for CE

Under the “Qualified Adult (QA) on a Community Employment Scheme: Pilot” - if you are a QA on your spouse, partner, civil partner or cohabitant’s Jobseekers Allowance claim and they meet the eligibility for CE, you may be eligible to participate in CE. Please note that this CE eligibility option is open to QAs as part of a pilot scheme since 1 January 2023.

If you do not qualify for CE under the eligibility criteria for your age group above, you may still be eligible for the scheme if you are aged 18 years and over and you are:

• Getting Disability Allowance, Blind Pension or Invalidity Pension, or

• Getting Illness Benefit for at least 6 months, or

• A member of the Traveller or Roma community, unemployed and getting Jobseeker's Benefit or Jobseeker's Allowance for any length of time or One-Parent Family Payment for at least 1 year, or

• A person with refugee status and getting any DSP payment for any length of time, or

• Referred following an appropriate assessment according to the National Drugs Rehabilitation Framework protocols, 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, or

• Living on one of the offshore islands and currently getting a CE-qualifying payment for 6 months or more.