The dole for students

event

dont know if this is the right forum, feel free to move it

Can a student claim the dole?

A mate of mine is currently doing a masters degree and will be finished in two weeks. has a job lined up, but doesnt start until october. Cant work during the summer, as will be doing a thesis. Can said student claim the dole, legally, for the perios between finishing in two weeks and starting the new job in october?

leeroybrown

I'm not 100% sure of this as the last time I looked into it was for a friend a few years ago:

You can't receive social welfare for six weeks after you are officially finished college. In addition to this I have a few friends whose applications were stalled a lot by the social welfare office. This six weeks is backdated from when your application is processed/approved and you can sometimes get the Community Welfare Office to advance them (claim difficult financial circumstances, etc).

I hope that's of some help.

andy1249

The answer to this is no , you cannot claim while you are a student , to claim welfare you must be ;

Unemployed and actively seeking gainful employment ,
Be available to work on each day that you claim welfare ,

As your mate is a student , he is neither available to work or actively seeking employment and to claim benefit under these conditions while being a student is Fraud , plain and simple.

event

andy1249 wrote:

The answer to this is no , you cannot claim while you are a student , to claim welfare you must be ;

Unemployed and actively seeking gainful employment ,
Be available to work on each day that you claim welfare ,

As your mate is a student , he is neither available to work or actively seeking employment and to claim benefit under these conditions while being a student is Fraud , plain and simple.

well he wont be a student during the summer, he will be finished and just doing a thesis, but not at college or anything

and technically he is unemployed and actively seeking gainful employment

but im just wondering, as he will have no income at all for 4 months

andy1249

Not actively seeking employment , as far as I understand it he already has a job , albeit not for a while ,
remember that slip of paper you sign is a legal document and should it be found out afterwards there will be a fraud charge !

event

andy1249 wrote:

Not actively seeking employment , as far as I understand it he already has a job , albeit not for a while ,
remember that slip of paper you sign is a legal document and should it be found out afterwards there will be a fraud charge !

forgot about that :mad:

thats grand lads, thanks

better info here than the goverments site:D

Vokes

event wrote:

well he wont be a student during the summer, he will be finished and just doing a thesis, but not at college or anything

and technically he is unemployed and actively seeking gainful employment

Well, technically even if your friend is only doing a thesis in the summer, he is still a student.

arctic lemur

Is the thesis part of a degree or is it like a PHd by research with no lectures as this can make a difference. Go onto the welfare.ie website, click on FOI, then a toolbat will come up with the letters of the alphabeth, click on 'U' and look up the guidelines! He has to be available for work and genuinely seeking full-time work. You can also contact the information officer in your social welfare local office. They are very helpful.

swingking

Does it seem fair that

On the one hand, (some) students work their asses off in order to pass exams and on the other some workingclass-father to several children- tracksuit wearing- smoking dope guy gets money to sit on his ass

Where is the justice?????

gary the great

What about my situation, im finished college next week, but broke my leg badly and wont be able to work for 5months. Can i claim the dole or disability or something? I was also working part time at the time.

I also worked last year as a student on placement, did 40hrs a week but only got 180 a week (im sure this affects my credits or something, im clueless)

Well where do I stand (or not stand in my situation!)

arctic lemur

gary the great wrote:

What about my situation, im finished college next week, but broke my leg badly and wont be able to work for 5months. Can i claim the dole or disability or something? I was also working part time at the time.

I also worked last year as a student on placement, did 40hrs a week but only got 180 a week (im sure this affects my credits or something, im clueless)

Well where do I stand (or not stand in my situation!)

You can go on DB if you have enough insurance contributions. You can ring central records in the Dept of Social And Family Affairs to see if you have enough stamps paid. They will be able to tell you the status of your credits which where i'm standing look like A cons.

arctic lemur

swingking wrote:

Does it seem fair that

On the one hand, (some) students work their asses off in order to pass exams and on the other some workingclass-father to several children- tracksuit wearing- smoking dope guy gets money to sit on his ass

Where is the justice?????

Everyone has to satisfy the conditions for UA and UB regardless of family/economic/intellectual background!

gary the great

artic lemur wrote:

They will be able to tell you the status of your credits which where i'm standing look like A cons.

Cool will give them a ring tommorrow. By the way what do you mean by "look like A cons?"

Thanks for the advice.

arctic lemur

Sorry i'm talking in lingo!
For Disability Benefit you have to have reckonable insurance contributions paid at classes A,H or P. You can get a copy of the SW4 at your Local Office too and it outlines the qualifying conditions for all schemes.

gary the great

Ye looks like ill get class A, read up on social welfare website, although it doesnt state a rough estimate of what id get, do you have any idea?
plus I think I read somewhere you have to be disabled for more than a year to get disability benefit, or did I read this wrong?

arctic lemur

No you do not need to be disabled for more than a year to get DB, you just have to have enough insurance contributions paid.

The personal rate is €165.80. However, Disability Benefit rates are graduated according to earnings in the relevant tax year.


You may qualify for Disability Benefit if you:
are unable to work due to illness
satisfy the PRSI conditions
and
are under age 66

You must have: at least 52 weeks PRSI contributions paid since you first started work and 39 weeks PRSI contributions paid or credited in the relevant tax year (13 of these must be paid contributions), or 26 weeks PRSI contributions paid in the relevant tax year and
26 weeks PRSI contributions paid in the tax year immediately before the relevant tax year. The relevant tax year is the second last complete tax year before the year in which you claim Disability Benefit.

The relevant tax year is 2004.

If you do not have 13 paid contributions in the relevant tax year, you may use following years instead:

the two tax years before the relevant tax year,
the last complete tax year,
or
the current tax year.


Only PRSI paid in classes A, E, H and P count towards Disability Benefit.
qualify for Disability Benefit.

failsafe

So then what about a student who finishes this summer for good? With no thesis or masters to do. If i'm actively seeking employment, can i claim dole in the mean time?

Civilian_Target

Yep

arctic lemur

failsafe wrote:

So then what about a student who finishes this summer for good? With no thesis or masters to do. If i'm actively seeking employment, can i claim dole in the mean time?

Yes if you are finished your final year of college you can claim Unemployment Assistance but you would have to be available for work and genuinely seeking work.

event

arctic lemur wrote:

Is the thesis part of a degree or is it like a PHd by research with no lectures as this can make a difference. Go onto the welfare.ie website, click on FOI, then a toolbat will come up with the letters of the alphabeth, click on 'U' and look up the guidelines! He has to be available for work and genuinely seeking full-time work. You can also contact the information officer in your social welfare local office. They are very helpful.

thesis is part of the degree, needs to be done

The_Hustler

Hate to bring up such an old thread but I am in the exact same situation as the OP's mate. I am doing a masters and will have to complete my dissertation over the summer. I have signed a contract to commence employment in September.

A lot of the advice so far has been incorrect with regard to the student status (although things may have changed since 2006), because according to welfare.ie:

(d) Students completing theses/projects :

The legislation provides for disqualification while attending a full-time day course of study. Third level students who have completed final examinations but are completing theses or projects cannot be regarded as still attending a full-time day course of study and, therefore, cannot be disqualified under this provision. Entitlement may, however, be considered under the availability condition, - Section 141 (4)(c) depending on the degree of commitment to the project/thesis.

I have actually applied for a couple of jobs for around July as the dissertation will not be time consuming enough to prevent me working.

The main issue here is whether I am entitled seeing as I have a job lined up. Despite what andy1249 said, I find it hard to believe that dole is not available in between, seeing as it is possible to work in between. Dole is meant to keep you going until you start earning wages I thought.

Also, I cannot see anything on the website about means testing if you live at home with your family, there only seems to be information about having a spouse or partner. Does this affect things?

the_syco

There's 3 things. Ones the dole, and then the other two are "jobseekers allowance", and "jobseekers benifit". The difference between the last two is hard to say. Look into the last one, to see if you can get something from it.

Finally, have a go looking for a short-term contract. You say you start a job in September? That's about 6 months away. See if you qualified for the odd 2 or 3 month contract (temping in an office, or maybe you'll be qualified in sorting out/finishing up some work). It'll keep the money coming in, and will allow you to do the thesis also.

The_Hustler

Sorry yeah, I was referring to the last 2, I thought that was the dole!

You only get benefit if you are paying PRSI, so I would not get that, so allowance it is. The information about getting it while doing a thesis is in reference to jobseekers allowance.

It is 6 months away (I can't believe it's that close!) but, and I should have been more clear about this, I am still attending college full-time right now and will sit my exams at the end of May. So I am talking about June, July and August.
I have applied for temp work just recently but if that doesn't work out, I would like this as a back up.

EDIT: Actually, thanks for those links. I was thinking it would be unusual for them to ignore my parents' income, but couldn't find the answer. Your link told me
"If you are 24 years of age or under and you are living with a parent or a step-parent in the family home, your parents' income will also be taken into account. The Department of Social and Family Affairs call this an assessment of the ‘benefit and privilege’ you get from living with your parents."

Now the only issue is whether the fact I have a job lined up disqualifies me.

the_syco

The_Hustler wrote: »

It is 6 months away (I can't believe it's that close!) but, and I should have been more clear about this, I am still attending college full-time right now and will sit my exams at the end of May. So I am talking about June, July and August.
I have applied for temp work just recently but if that doesn't work out, I would like this as a back up.

Ah. You fail at free money. Don't pass go, don't collect €200. To claim, you must wait at least 4 months after you finish college, before you can start looking for money, and even then, you must take any job that comes up.

I don't know any details about the September job, but it it's a full time job in the bag, my advise would be to get a part-time job for the summer lined up now (doing so now will allow you to pick a good one), and enjoy your last summer of freedom. Trust me: you'll regret not f**king about when you're on a 9-5 desk job.

Eoin

swingking wrote: »

Does it seem fair that

On the one hand, (some) students work their asses off in order to pass exams and on the other some workingclass-father to several children- tracksuit wearing- smoking dope guy gets money to sit on his ass

Where is the justice?????

Where is the injustice there exactly?

The_Hustler

the_syco wrote: »

To claim, you must wait at least 4 months after you finish college, before you can start looking for money

I'm not saying that's wrong, but I honestly cannot find any suggestion of this on either of the websites. There is a term of 3 months after you finish the Leaving Cert before you can claim but it seems to me that you can claim immediately once your final exams are complete in college.


Yeah, it's a job in the bag, 9-5 for the next 3 years at least. I've worked full-time every summer since I finished my Leaving Cert so I really do want to relax this summer!

the_syco

The_Hustler wrote: »

I'm not saying that's wrong, but I honestly cannot find any suggestion of this on either of the websites. There is a term of 3 months after you finish the Leaving Cert before you can claim but it seems to me that you can claim immediately once your final exams are complete in college.

A few of us have tried:D

The_Hustler

Damn! Might actually take the summer off anyway, I'll be working for the next 40 something years!

Thanks for letting me know

the_syco

The_Hustler wrote: »

Damn! Might actually take the summer off anyway, I'll be working for the next 40 something years!

Thanks for letting me know

No problem. But you should take up some part time job. Not only do you get funding to do stuff (drink, cinema, etc), but you'll enjoy your time off better. Work 2 days a week, and you'll enjoy your 5 days off. Otherwise, you'll be bored after 3 weeks, and look forward to going back to work, full-time. I've worked in a pub, cinema, call centre, mopping the floor in a college, preparing food in a busy kitchen, delivering leaflets... and was on unemployment benefit for a few weeks. Christ, I was bored those weeks. You only really enjoy your time off if you work for it.

Get a job where you can work for one day, and you'll enjoy the rest of the week off more. You may ask where would employ you for one day? Pubs. Work all day Friday & Friday night, and you'll have money for the rest of the week. Not much, but 8 hours work (10pm to 4am) would get you €70. Leaves you time to college work at the weekend, and in the summer, work Thursday as well for extra cash (don't work Saturdays:cool:)

Yillan

Hello

If I defer a year of college, can I claim the dole for that year? Can anyone tell me please?

tenchi-fan

Start a new thread in the correct forum instead of bumping an old one

I was doing my thesis this time last year while actively seeking work. I applied when I finished my exams at the end of May/start of June. I received my first payment at the beginning of August with a back payment for the time I had been waiting.