Labour has said it wants to overhaul the rules for the Back to Education Allowance to allow thousands more people to become eligible.
Speaking at Labour’s annual conference in Galway, party spokesperson on social protection, Róisín Shortall said an unemployed person normally has to wait for 12 months before than qualify for the third level option.
If returned to government Ms Shorthall said Labour would reduce this period to three months.
She told delegates the current rule was ludicrous and added that it had been in place since before the economic downturn.
“It didn’t make much sense then and it makes even less now. Making people wait 12 months is an incentive to remain unemployed until the eligibility criteria are fulfilled.”
She said a third of young males were unemployed and that the focus needed to be on providing them with greater opportunities.
“The over-riding criteria that should be applied to the scheme is: would another qualification help with that person’s job prospects?”