Social Welfare Screw Up

zuutroy

My girlfriend was getting the dole last summer after we returned from abroad. She decided to do a FETAC course, and social welfare said she could continue to claim. She was doing a bit of digging and found that you could do 'casual work' for a few hours a week and still get some dole. So she took a retail job doing 12 hrs a week and told welfare. they said fine. A couple of weeks later, there was no drop at all and she was still getting the full payment, so she went in and checked it out with them and they said everything was ok. This was 6 months ago. This week, she didnt get her payment and when she rang up, they said that they had no idea she was working and that this wasn't allowed at all, and the person on the phone couldn't imagine who told her this was ok (and said they'd be sacked if they were found). As it happened she was going to sign off this week because she's finished the part time FETAC thing, and able to work all week now.
I assume they're going to try and take money back off her now, but being that it was COMPLETELY their fault and she was totally honest with them, I don't see they have any grounds to do this.
Any opinions?

Cantab.

zuutroy wrote:

My girlfriend was getting the dole last summer after we returned from abroad. She decided to do a FETAC course, and social welfare said she could continue to claim. She was doing a bit of digging and found that you could do 'casual work' for a few hours a week and still get some dole. So she took a retail job doing 12 hrs a week and told welfare. they said fine. A couple of weeks later, there was no drop at all and she was still getting the full payment, so she went in and checked it out with them and they said everything was ok. This was 6 months ago. This week, she didnt get her payment and when she rang up, they said that they had no idea she was working and that this wasn't allowed at all, and the person on the phone couldn't imagine who told her this was ok (and said they'd be sacked if they were found). As it happened she was going to sign off this week because she's finished the part time FETAC thing, and able to work all week now.
I assume they're going to try and take money back off her now, but being that it was COMPLETELY their fault and she was totally honest with them, I don't see they have any grounds to do this.
Any opinions?

I find it very hard to believe that anybody could think that they could work part-time and still get the dole. Get real.

I don't have much sympathy for anyone who is has a demonstrated capacity for work (indeed can go abroad on holidays) yet goes on the dole.

Pay back the money and get a job.

testicle

Completely unhelpful comment there Cantab.

Part-time or casual work
If you get part-time or casual work (up to and including 3 days per week), you will be paid Unemployment Assistance for the full week less 60% of your average net weekly earnings. If you have no child dependants, 12.70 euro per day is deducted from your average net weekly earnings and then 60% of the balance is assessed as your weekly means.

zuutroy

Cantab. wrote:

I find it very hard to believe that anybody could think that they could work part-time and still get the dole. Get real.

Every substitute teacher in the country does this along with many other people I'm sure

I don't have much sympathy for anyone who is has a demonstrated capacity for work (indeed can go abroad on holidays) yet goes on the dole.

Pay back the money and get a job.

A) We were living abroad
She was doing a FETAC course and using the money to support herself. She worked on the other days and didn't expect to get full social welfare for those days, but when they said it was ok, what can you do?
C) If you dont have anything constructive to add, PFO

zuutroy

testicle wrote:

Part-time or casual work
If you get part-time or casual work (up to and including 3 days per week), you will be paid Unemployment Assistance for the full week less 60% of your average net weekly earnings. If you have no child dependants, 12.70 euro per day is deducted from your average net weekly earnings and then 60% of the balance is assessed as your weekly means.

That is exactly the piece of info that made her get the job in the first place

BuffyBot

I find it very hard to believe that anybody could think that they could work part-time and still get the dole. Get real.

Well, it's easy to believe when it can be done. It's to try an encourage people to undertake part-time work, if it is a realistic option for them.

OP - Unless she has names of people she spoke to, and days that she spoke to them etc, she's going to find it difficult to claim "well I was told this". If I was her, I'd go to the local social welfare office, and sit down and discuss it with a member of staff, sorting out what happened when, and what can be done about it.

They're normally fairly reasonable about things once you get in touch with them - and face to face is normally the best way to get things done.

jinxycat

she can claim for the days she's not working, when i enquired about i was told you can work 20hrs per week and claim the dole for the rest, but i don't think it is as much as it would be if she wasn't working at all, there'd be some deductions.

only reason i know this is when i was made redundant i signed on til i had another job.

if your still unsure go to the citizens advice and ask them also.

Huggles

When I left college many moons ago I went on the dole for a few months while I looked for a proper job.

I finally found a job and rand the social welfare crowd immediately. They told me I could collect the dole till I got paid. Great, I thought I'd be broke for four weeks, my payments were stopped on the third week after I got the job and three weeks later I got a bill for over 300 quid.

So, some fool in the social welfare gave me the wrong information too! They are always at that from what I hear.

Miguel_Sanchez

Was she filling out the 'casual work slips' or whatever they're called? I did casual work and got a small bit of dole for a while a few summers ago and I had to drop a slip into the dole office each week that was stamped by my employer and had how many days I worked on it.

If she wasn't filling out these forms then she has absolutely no come back against the dole.

lostexpectation

Jeff_Lebowski wrote:

Was she filling out the 'casual work slips' or whatever they're called? I did casual work and got a small bit of dole for a while a few summers ago and I had to drop a slip into the dole office each week that was stamped by my employer and had how many days I worked on it.

If she wasn't filling out these forms then she has absolutely no come back against the dole.

don't they have some obligation to give you proper advice about their services , she inquired enough times.

zuutroy

I went through old bank statements there yesterday, and found that the payments did indeed drop for 3 weeks in December, but come Jan 1st it went back to the full amount, so basically they had it setup correctly, but didnt roll it over to the next year. Their fault. QED!

nesf

Were they overpaying her? If so, then you are liable for the amount overpaid afaik, even when they might have made the mistake. Something about you having a responsibility to ensure you are not being overpaid or something.

arctic lemur

Cantab. wrote:

I find it very hard to believe that anybody could think that they could work part-time and still get the dole. Get real.

I don't have much sympathy for anyone who is has a demonstrated capacity for work (indeed can go abroad on holidays) yet goes on the dole.


Actually you can, you have to be unemployed for at least 3 days in every period of six.

For unemployment assistance the means from your earnings cant be equal to or greater than the rate you are being paid on the dole.

If it unemployment benefit you have to have suffered a substantial loss of employment and you lose 1/6 of your weekly dole for each day worked. See welfare.ie for details.

arctic lemur

TheGooner wrote:

When I left college many moons ago I went on the dole for a few months while I looked for a proper job.

I finally found a job and rand the social welfare crowd immediately. They told me I could collect the dole till I got paid. Great, I thought I'd be broke for four weeks, my payments were stopped on the third week after I got the job and three weeks later I got a bill for over 300 quid.

So, some fool in the social welfare gave me the wrong information too! They are always at that from what I hear.

Dont tar all people in that line of work with the same brush. There is a customer service section in the department also. Check the phone book!

arctic lemur

BuffyBot wrote:

Well, it's easy to believe when it can be done. It's to try an encourage people to undertake part-time work, if it is a realistic option for them.

OP - Unless she has names of people she spoke to, and days that she spoke to them etc, she's going to find it difficult to claim "well I was told this". If I was her, I'd go to the local social welfare office, and sit down and discuss it with a member of staff, sorting out what happened when, and what can be done about it.

They're normally fairly reasonable about things once you get in touch with them - and face to face is normally the best way to get things done.

I'd agree with Buffy's advice on this. It's better to sort out situations on a face to face basis.