Internship?

The Citizens Information leaflet on JobBridge is more detailed than the JobBridge website information and according to Citizens Information, you keep the Social Welfare payment you were receiving plus getting the Euro 50 allowance EXCEPT in cases where you are transferring from a Work Placement to a JobBridge internship and were on an aged reduced payment prior to commencing the Work Placement - see below.

Rates
You will keep your social welfare payment and you will get an internship allowance of €50 per week. You will also keep any secondary benefits that you have when you take up an internship. No top-up payments from the host organisation are permitted, but interns may be reimbursed for expenses incurred during the internship.

If you have dependent children you will be paid the full Increase for a Qualified Child (IQC) if you qualify for an Increase for a Qualified Adult (IQA) or if you are parenting alone. If you do not qualify for an IQA, you may receive a half-rate IQC.

Social welfare payment: When you are an intern, the time you are getting an internship allowance is disregarded when calculating how long you continue to be entitled to your jobseeker’s payment. This means that, when you finish the internship, you can resume your social welfare claim from the point at which you left. For example, if you were getting Jobseeker's Benefit and you had 90 days left on your claim when you started an internship, you will still have 90 days of entitlement left if you resume your claim when you have completed the internship.

Converting a work placement: If you are aged 22-24 and on a work placement you will have been getting the higher social welfare rate of €188 per week. If your work placement is converted to an internship your social welfare payment rate will be reduced to €150 per week. However, you will also receive the weekly top up of €50 so you will get an internship allowance of €200 per week. This is an increase of €12 over your previous payment.[/I]
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/unemployment_and_redundancy/employment_support_schemes/national_internship_scheme.html

You are indeed correct in pointing out that there is no age related payment of Euro 150 - what Citizens Information is referring to should obviously be the payment to 22 to 24 year olds which is, as you state, Euro 144 Euro. Not only is this mistake made by Citizens Information but also on the JobBridge site;

Individuals aged between 18-24 years of age will be entitled to their base rate of social welfare (either €100 or €150 per week) plus the weekly top-up of €50. They are not entitled to the higher rate of social welfare (€188 per week) when they participate in the National Internship Scheme. http://www.jobbridge.ie/InternPayment.aspx

It is yet one more example of the true state of chassis we are in when the website of JobBridge, a government initiative set up by the Department of Social Protection and run by Fas cannot even get the social welfare payment figures correct.

That said, and onto the question of whether people aged under 25 and previously receiving the full JA amount of Euro 188 before entering a JobBridge internship: it is my understanding that they will retain that Euro 188 plus receive the additional Euro 50. Those on age reduced payments prior to entering JobBridge will maintain those age reduced payments plus get the Euro 50.

There are good and careful posters on this site who work for the Department of Social Protection and it would be a great service if they could clarify if this understanding is correct. Please! Also anyone aged under 25 previously on the full payment and who took up a JobBridge internship would be best equipped to shed light.

Balagan wrote: »

You are indeed correct in pointing out that there is no age related payment of Euro 150 - what Citizens Information is referring to should obviously be the payment to 22 to 24 year olds which is, as you state, Euro 144 Euro. Not only is this mistake made by Citizens Information but also on the JobBridge site;

Individuals aged between 18-24 years of age will be entitled to their base rate of social welfare (either €100 or €150 per week) plus the weekly top-up of €50. They are not entitled to the higher rate of social welfare (€188 per week) when they participate in the National Internship Scheme. http://www.jobbridge.ie/InternPayment.aspx

It is yet one more example of the true state of chassis we are in when the website of JobBridge, a government initiative set up by the Department of Social Protection and run by Fas cannot even get the social welfare payment figures correct.

That said, and onto the question of whether people aged under 25 and previously receiving the full JA amount of Euro 188 before entering a JobBridge internship: it is my understanding that they will retain that Euro 188 plus receive the additional Euro 50. Those on age reduced payments prior to entering JobBridge will maintain those age reduced payments plus get the Euro 50.

There are good and careful posters on this site who work for the Department of Social Protection and it would be a great service if they could clarify if this understanding is correct. Please! Also anyone aged under 25 previously on the full payment and who took up a JobBridge internship would be best equipped to shed light.

My understanding is that the current rate will apply e.g someone on age related will not receive €188 plus €50 but will remain on the lower rate plus €50 but while they are on the internship they exceed the age limit it will automically be increased and for people married or cohab and there is a change in their means either up or down during the duration of the internship it will be applied. The guidelines for this are completely different to back to education allowance.