Rent Allowance.

Curious Geroge

Hi all. I recently found out that a minimum wage worker does not pay tax and thereby is not entitled to rent relief due to no tax been paid. I wondered if this in turn did entitle minimum wage workers to rent allowance ? or any other state benefits ?

If not, why not is the question... Wouldn't a minimum worker working 40 hours and earning 346 euro be better off on the dole @ 185 euro, getting rent allowance and working < 20 hours per week (165) be better off with 350 plus rent allowance and alot more free time to do nothing.. Do this seem like yet another mistake that our government is making where minumum workers should just quit there jobs and hope on the easy train..

billy the squid

No it does not. You should still apply for tax credits for private rented accomodation. It will have no financial benefit to you but should you be required to do overtime it will be of benefit to you.

If you have revenue add the private rented accomodation allowance onto your tax free allowance certificate now you won't have to do it when you get a better job.

People on minimum wage cannot get rent allownce.

You can however apply for a doctor only medical card, which will pay for doctor visits, and you can also apply for the drugs repayment scheme, which means that if you are on long term medication costing more than €90 a month you will not have to pay more than the €90 a month.