AQW 47838/11-15

Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry

Tabled Date: 26/06/2015
Answered On Date: 15/07/2015
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning whether the Pathways for Young People Education Maintenance Allowance will be continued following the formal interim evaluation of the Pathways to Success strategy.

Answer:

Educational and Maintenance Allowance (EMA) can continue to be paid to young people through the mechanism whereby project promoters can claim participant costs through the indirect costs element of the new European Social Fund (ESF) programme.

The original focus of the Pathways for Young People EMA was to remove any perceived barriers to participation for 16-17 year olds in the NEET category. The Pathways for Young People funding was restricted to a three year period ending in March 2015. In the guidance made available to applicants for the recent call for ESF project applications, allowances for participants were given as an example of the type of additional costs which could be claimed in the revised simplified model, and it was made clear that any such expenses should be included in the 40% overhead costs.

Sufficient resources are not available in my Department’s budget to enable separate funding of the Pathways EMA. I have attempted to maximise ESF funding by channelling available resources into requests for 35% match funding, which is in addition to the 25% DEL contribution, as projects cannot progress without this in place. This support for match funding enables draw-down of the 40% ESF funding available to projects and is a more cost effective use of available resources.

ESF Managing Authority officials have advised projects that they can re-profile the indirect cost section of their applications to take account of participant allowances.