Desperately worried. Please advise re entitlements.

LegacyUser · 18-08-2011 2:48am #1

Here's my messy situation. I left for Australia at the beginning of the year after working for thirteen months straight in Dublin. Prior to that I was on the dole for three months. My partner since became ill while in Oz and I returned last month hoping to get something in my field in the UK. I've since had four hard gotten interviews there over the course of a month and while I came very close, some of these jobs had over 150 applicants and I got into the last five, I remain unemployed. I now write from the UK with an exhausted bank account about to get the boat home.

Will I be able to avail of benefits and if so how do I go about getting them? I am absolutely broke and won't even have money for food at the end of the week.
Also, if I do get the dole or JSA or whatever you call it I'll have to have an address AFAIK. Thing is, I don't have anywhere to live bar my parents place down the country. I'll have to live there I suppose but I want to volunteer full-time to preserve my sanity and because I can be very useful in my area. I've contacted the relevant party and they are ready to take me on.

This volunteering position is in Dublin so if I get the dole based on my parents' address in Tipperary how can I volunteer as I'll need to move? Will I be allowed to move to Dublin to volunteer? Will I be entitled to rent allowance?
Please help, I'm at my wit's end with serious anxiety and depression symptoms fast developing. I want to work, I want to be useful and I'm becoming very desperate. I'm 30 btw.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can advise.

dabestman1 · 18-08-2011 11:31am

You need to rent six months previously to be entitled to rent allowance and you cannot volunteer full time and claim the dole because you need to be looking for a job full time.I doubt you'll get anything.

Balagan · 18-08-2011 1:25pm

If you worked in 2009 you may have entitlement to some non means tested Jobseekers Benefit. In any case you can apply for Jobseekers Allowance and while the claim is being processed, you can apply to the Community Welfare Officer for Supplementary Welfare Allowance to tide you over till your claim is sorted. You'll need to get approval from SW for the voluntary work before you commence it -see below for the conditions and a link. To get Rent Supplement you have to either be approved by the Local Authority as being in need of social housing or have been renting privately for 6 months. Sounds like you have been through a very difficult time and maybe take it step by step when you get home and weigh up things. Best of luck.

A person may engage in voluntary work and continue to be entitled to JA I]or JB[/I provided s/he continues to satisfy the conditions of being available for and genuinely seeking work.

A number of factors are taken into account by a Deciding Officer in determining whether the work involved is voluntary and whether a person would continue to satisfy the conditions for the receipt of JA, and these include:
•the aims and standing of the voluntary organisation, •the nature of the work involved, •the weekly number of hours worked.
The employment must be truly voluntary and the Deciding Officer must be satisfied that the unemployed person is not engaging in work that would normally warrant liability for the payment of PRSI. The Voluntary Work Option embraces a wide variety of voluntary activities, e.g. assisting the elderly, the sick or the handicapped in their homes or in institutions or assisting voluntary bodies such as youth clubs and resident associations. A person who wishes to apply for payment under the Voluntary Work Option must complete an application form (VW1), which is available from Social Welfare Local Offices. The application form VW1 should be submitted to the relevant Local Office for decision before s/he commences the voluntary work.
http://www.volunteersouthdublin.ie/news/latest-news/246-volunteering-and-social-welfare-payments.html

LegacyUser · 18-08-2011 1:25pm

Why would I get nothing? Not even job seeker's allowance? How am I going to survive? OK, I won't volunteer full-time but you're saying I'll get nothing.

LegacyUser · 18-08-2011 1:55pm

Balagan wrote: »

Sounds like you have been through a very difficult time and maybe take it step by step when you get home and weigh up things. Best of luck.

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Oh you don't know the half of it. This has been my annus horribilis to say the very least. Thanks for your advice. Just for the record I stopped working in Ireland at the end of January and was working throughout all of 2010.

Balagan · 18-08-2011 2:29pm

Worried regular wrote: »

Oh you don't know the half of it. This has been my annus horribilis to say the very least. Thanks for your advice. Just for the record I stopped working in Ireland at the end of January and was working throughout all of 2010.

The year 2009 would be the relevant tax year for claim made this year 2011. You could make an assessment from below as to whether you would qualify for the non means tested Jobseekers Benefit.

Social insurance (PRSI) contributions
To qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit, you must pay Class A, H or P PRSI contributions. Class A is the one paid by most private sector employees. Class H is paid by soldiers, reservists and temporary army nurses, who do not qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit until they have left the army.

At least 104 weeks PRSI paid since you first started work
And

Have 39 weeks PRSI paid or credited in the relevant tax year (a minimum of 13 weeks must be paid contributions*)
Or

Have 26 weeks PRSI paid in the relevant tax year and 26 weeks PRSI paid in the tax year immediately before the relevant tax year.
*If you do not have 13 paid contributions in the relevant tax year, you must have paid 13 contributions paid in any of the following years:

The 2 tax years before the relevant tax year
The last complete tax year
The current tax year.
The Relevant Tax Year is the second last complete tax year before the year in which your claim is made. So, for claims made in 2011, the Relevant Tax Year is 2009.
There are a number of circumstances in which you will be awarded credited contributions. For example, pre-entry credits are given when you start employment for the first time in your working life. However, you will only qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit when you have actually paid 104 contributions. Credits are also awarded while you are getting certain social welfare payments, including Jobseeker's Benefit (provided it is for 6 days), Jobseeker's Allowance or Illness Benefit.

Contributions you have paid in other member states of the EU/EEA will be added to your Irish contributions. If you are applying for Jobseeker's Benefit and need the contributions paid in another EU/EEA country to help you qualify, then your last contribution must have been in Ireland.
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/unemployed_people/jobseekers_benefit.html

coolbeans · 18-08-2011 5:05pm

Thank you.

Desperately worried. Please advise re entitlements.

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