Job seekers allowance

byrner88

went into my local social welfare office today to claim the job seekers allowance brought in my p45 , passport , utility bill and my long birth cert. i was waiting about half an hour then had a little chat with the fella behind the counter he told me to come back on the 1st of may for an appointment with the welfare officer. i never heard of this before neither has my brother or my mate who only recently went onto the job seekers allowance.

juninibaz07

byrner88 wrote: »

went into my local social welfare office today to claim the job seekers allowance brought in my p45 , passport , utility bill and my long birth cert. i was waiting about half an hour then had a little chat with the fella behind the counter he told me to come back on the 1st of may for an appointment with the welfare officer. i never heard of this before neither has my brother or my mate who only recently went onto the job seekers allowance.

experienced the same thing. went in on a friday, had all the forms etc and then basically they told me to come back the following wednesday. Good news is that when you get there on the appointment date, you should be seen straight away. (assuming you were givin an appointment time)
Although the waiting times for most people i know can be 6 weeks or more.

For me it was 1 week. So i only have good social welfare experiences (touch wood)

byrner88

yeah i got a time for my appointment so thats cool. were u waiting long to get ur allowance after ur appointment?

juninibaz07

byrner88 wrote: »

yeah i got a time for my appointment so thats cool. were u waiting long to get ur allowance after ur appointment?

sorry, reading back through my post, i could have been clearer, my bad,

the appointments are usually set days after your first visit. then typically the allowance comes anywhere from 1 week to 10 weeks. (shocking i know)
i was the lucky one, one week and i was sorted.
Other former workmates have only recieved theirs this week (10 weeks from applying)

Big piece of advice. Bring everything you can, as the workmates i mentioned were all asked for different pieces of information that they didnt have on them that they had to go back with, i brought everything, i was sorted in a week.
Bills,
Bank statement,
Birth cert
Photo ID
P45 (all parts)
Any redundancy documentation you may (or may not) have received
2 years of p60 2007 and 2008
and anything else you feel relevant

hope this helps

Kotek Besar

juninibaz07 wrote: »

went in on a friday, had all the forms etc and then basically they told me to come back the following wednesday. Good news is that when you get there on the appointment date, you should be seen straight away.

Same thing happened to my mother-in-law. She went in last Monday, got an appointment for today. She went in today, met with the officer, and submitted her completed forms, ID, etc.

The officer told my mother-in-law to come back on 21st May to "sign paper". My mother-in-law's English is not brilliant. She's not really sure what went on today, and what's meant to happen on 21st May (just under a month from today).

Could it be that her application was approved instantly, today, by the welfare officer who saw her? And that 21st May shall be the first monthly signing? That would seem too good to be true.

Has anyone any experience of claiming Jobseeker's Allowance, and of what might have happened today?

Thanks in advance.

juninibaz07

to be honest, it sounds like you have it right but maybe to double check you should call the local welfare office yourself.
Usually you will receive a letter to say your allowance is ready in the local post office from a certain date, but i would advise a quick call to the office, be ready with your mother in laws pps number and give the person a quick brief because they may not want to give out info like that to the wrong person.(good idea to call when your mother in law is present.

hope it helps

uoluol

It sounds like you all qualified for Jobseeker's Benefit, which is based on PRSI contributions and is not means tested. JB claims are fairly straightforward to set up, and in line with policy of trying to speed up simple claims, some of the newer offices are giving people appointments to return with outstanding documentation and then are immediately being put into payment.

There is no point in ringing up about your mum in laws claim, as you wont be given information on any other person's claim, under data protection laws. But it sounds like the date in May is her next signing date. She will more than likely receive written notification that her claim is in payment.

Kotek Besar

juninibaz07 wrote: »

to be honest, it sounds like you have it right but maybe to double check you should call the local welfare office yourself.
Usually you will receive a letter to say your allowance is ready in the local post office from a certain date, but i would advise a quick call to the office, be ready with your mother in laws pps number and give the person a quick brief because they may not want to give out info like that to the wrong person.(good idea to call when your mother in law is present.

hope it helps

Thanks juninibaz07. It's really strange, because my mother-in-law was given a white card with her name, PPS number and next (actually first) signing date / time window, and hatch number. But she forgot to ask the officer if her application was approved or not! And the officer didn't tell my mother-in-law either way, we don't think.

uoluol wrote: »

It sounds like you all qualified for Jobseeker's Benefit, which is based on PRSI contributions and is not means tested. JB claims are fairly straightforward to set up, and in line with policy of trying to speed up simple claims, some of the newer offices are giving people appointments to return with outstanding documentation and then are immediately being put into payment.

There is no point in ringing up about your mum in laws claim, as you wont be given information on any other person's claim, under data protection laws. But it sounds like the date in May is her next signing date. She will more than likely receive written notification that her claim is in payment.

Thanks uoluol. I'm sure she won't qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit, since she would certainly not have enough PRSI stamps in order to qualify. I believe she would qualify for Jobseeker's Allowance though, for herself, for her husband as Qualified Adult and her 15 year old son, as Qualified Child. The Means Test form was given to her and completed, together with the UP1 form.

IT Loser

Maybe I am just special, but here is my story, I would be grateful for any light anyone can shed on my situation:-

I used to work as a builders labourer, but I have a good 3rd level education.

My last stint as a builders labourer was from November 2006 to the end of February 2007.

I packed in from that job with some mild arthritis in my right hand, and I took my P45 down to the Welfare and I went through the Jobseekers Benefit route.

I accepted all of my payments, as guaranteed by the PRSI stamps I had accumulated during the above mentioned job. From March of 2007 to February 2008, I collected my payments, while seeking gainful employment in the legal sector and related fields.

Failing to secure meaningful employment, and with my Benefit now expired, I returned to my parents abode in May 2008. I did not make any attempt to claim means-tested Job Seekers ALLOWANCE at this time, preferring to claim my tax back from the above-mentioned labouring job, and live off a small personal loan from the Bank.

Now free of the shackles of rent, and living instead with my parents, I returned to the old college library and attempted to get myself into the Kings Inns.

Having studied long and hard to make the grade, I have spent the last few months looking for a job- any job- that will allow me to save enough money to pay for my Kings Inns fees. I must stress at this point that I am NOT in College, at any level, or with any institute. I am looking for work to get the money to get into the Kings Inns.

Of course, in the mean time, the arse has fallen out of things and I cant get a look in- even in my old labouring racket. I have more email job refusals than you could shake a stick at.

So, this morning, I went down to the Welfare office.

The guy at the hatch hands me this form and a ticket and sends me in.

I sit down in front of the girl and she looks up my details on the computer....and immediately tells me that they have given me the wrong form.

The girl gets me a white form, specifically for "Allowance" and I fill it in.

She did not say "come back every Friday and hand in a slip" nor did she say "fill these forms in and bang them in every week".

She did not look at my work references, or my FAS registration proof, or my P21 from the last job I had, or anything.

She just said an "inspector" or something would be down in around 3 weeks to do the means test, and that payment would be around 3 weeks after that. As it happens, I am over 25, I am in debt, I have no means, and I have been actively seeking work.

The girl punctuated our brief meeting by adding that after 3 months or so I would be requested to send in proof that I was looking for work.

It was all very civil and all very neat and promising.

Is there anything that has been missed???

Many thanks.

Xiney

Yup, everything is fine. Jobseeker's allowance doesn't have weekly forms to hand in - that is for when you're working part time (3 days or less per week) and signing on for the other 3 days.

Jobseeker's Allowance is pretty much the same as Benefit except that it is means tested. Since you don't have any means and you're over 25, you'll probably get the full whack every week and there won't be a difference from the JB.

IT Loser

Xiney wrote: »

Yup, everything is fine. Jobseeker's allowance doesn't have weekly forms to hand in - that is for when you're working part time (3 days or less per week) and signing on for the other 3 days.

Jobseeker's Allowance is pretty much the same as Benefit except that it is means tested. Since you don't have any means and you're over 25, you'll probably get the full whack every week and there won't be a difference from the JB.

Hey- that makes me feel great!! I specifically went out and arranged a loan some time back to try and work my way into the legal profession. Unfortunately, it never panned out. The debt is not huge but it was incurred as part of a plan to keep me off the welfare system. I hope they take cognizance of this. Its not me being snooty, but I think I did the right thing by not wanting to be means-tested and by trying to go it alone.

Xiney

They probably won't take much notice of the loan, to be honest. If you had an income they might, but otherwise, no.

Kanney

I've just received a call that my claim will arrive in a cheque next week. 8 weeks since I put it in.

Xiney

when did you have your means test "inspection", out of interest? Since that's the stage I'm waiting for still.

Kotek Besar

Xiney wrote: »

when did you have your means test "inspection", out of interest? Since that's the stage I'm waiting for still.

Inspection? Does someone come to your house?

Number one

Kanney wrote: »

I've just received a call that my claim will arrive in a cheque next week. 8 weeks since I put it in.

I got told that 2 weeks ago and I'm still waiting for it. Gona have to go in tomorrow and put the squeeze on them

Xiney

benifa wrote: »

Inspection? Does someone come to your house?

yes, supposedly they send you a letter to say when they'll be around though.

IT Loser

Xiney wrote: »

when did you have your means test "inspection", out of interest? Since that's the stage I'm waiting for still.

Well, all I can say is that a man or a lady calls out to your home, performs some perfunctory examination of your recent bank statements and/or credit union statements, loan statements etc.

Having satisfied them that there are not copious volumes of cash moving through your account{s}, you will be judged to have passed the means test.

Thats about all I know.

IT Loser

Kanney wrote: »

I've just received a call that my claim will arrive in a cheque next week. 8 weeks since I put it in.

Just as a matter of interest, why are you receiving a cheque in the post??

As a would-be recipient of Unemployment Assistance, I will be receiving

{a} a letter in the post letting me know when my means tester is coming

{b} a letter a few weeks later letting me know that my claim has been successful {or rejected as the case may be}

I know of no mechanism whereby you get an actual cheque in the post.