Key Issues for Unemployed Women & Men in West Clare:
 | The lack of ring-fenced business start-up finance for our unemployed people. |
| The lack of business supports and skills training targeted specifically at unemployed women. |
Many women are not on the Live Register and therefore cannot avail of payments such as the BTWEA. Mothers wishing to start businesses must cover childcare costs. Their businesses must, therefore, be more profitable more quickly in order to cover these costs. Women also face difficulties accessing many training opportunities such as FÁS and VTOS programmes. Confidence building is extremely important for women who may have worked in the home for the majority of their working life. From the consultation process in 2000, 23% of women felt they lacked confidence while NONE of their male counterparts indicated any lack in confidence levels.
| Changes in eligibility requirements for the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance. |
The Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA) has given many the opportunity to start up their own business, as this payment allows people that are unemployed to receive their social welfare payments over a four year period while the business is in the early stages of growth. However, in the budget of 2002, changes were made to the scheme and applicants had to be unemployed for 5 years rather than 15 months in order to be eligible for the scheme. This period of 5 years was reduced in the 2003 budget to three years, but this eligibility requirement is still is a significant barrier to assisting this target group into self-employment.
| The lack of respect afforded to unemployed women and men. |
Men and women that are unemployed are not seen to have a legitimate contribution to make to society because of their employment status. Therefore, there has been a lack of participation by the unemployed in local decision-making arenas such as Community Councils and Development Groups. It is the teacher, local business owner, bank manager, priest, and civil servant who are believed to have the most significant contribution to make. Many organisations feel it is impossible to involve unemployed people in anything; this has not been EIRI’s experience.
Some unemployed people do not claim the social welfare payments that they are entitled to because of ‘what the neighbours will think’. In addition to losing out on a weekly payment that they are entitled to, these people do not get access to training courses offered through FÁS and VTOS.
| The black economy. |
In rural areas, with few employment opportunities and a difficult commercial environment, there is a high dependency by both workers and employers on the black economy. From consultation with the Dept. of Social & Community Affairs in October 2003 we know they feel that there is evidence for high dependency on the black economy in West Clare from the low take up by eligible households of the Family Income Supplement. This means that many households cannot rely on a steady income, and often do not know when the next job will come. Individuals and families caught in black economy work are losing out on many rights and entitlements.