Working mothers entitlements!!

Solero

Hi im just looking for some advice here. I have a two year old daughter and am currently pregnant with my second child. I have only upto a month ago split from their Dad as he was causing alot of stress and upset in the house. At the moment I am living at home...where there are 6 of my siblings living so as you can imagine there is NO extra room available for me. I am in Full time work....earning 360 p/w and am giving my Mum maybe 50/60 p/w for caring for my child and towards other household bills.

I am just wondering is there any help available to me as I am working or would I be better off to give up work to permanently care for my child?

Mrs OBumble

I'd suggest asking a mod to move this to State Benefits ...

You might like to add in some details about why you're on able to manage on an income of E1440+(*) per month: are you living somewhere particularly expensive? does your child have a problem which is extra expensive? would your mother be unwilling to provide cheap childcare if you weren't living with her?

(*) You've told us what you earn, but you're also getting child benefit, which would make it more than that.

eth0_

JustMary wrote: »

You might like to add in some details about why you're on able to manage on an income of E1440+(*) per month:

Did it occur to you that maybe she's got a mortgage on the property she lived in with her ex partner?

OP - if you don't have a mortgage etc, surely you can rent somewhere for 4-500 a month (unless you live in Dublin!)?
Also, is your ex-partner providing you with child support money?

Stargal

Moved to the State Benefits forum. Hopefully someone here will be able to help you OP.

Solero

JustMary...yes i do find it hard to live on what i am earning!
I dont know it just seems like you would be better off NOT working and claim EVERYTHING you can...at the end of the day you'd be better off!!!
I know my own circumstances my outgoings are as follows:

Travel expenses to and from work 300 p/m
Minder for my daughter while I work 240/280 p/m
Bills to help my Mum to pay for as I live with her 160/200 p/m
Insurance/tax for my car 170 p/m
Food outgoings for myself and my daughter 320 p/m

This already comes to 1200 p/m, not mentioning any medical bills which may occur for both myself and my daughter. I am recieving NOTHING from my ex boyfriend, and with another child on the way I am just thinking would I be better off giving up my job??

I know from my ex boyfriends brothers girlfriend that she is recieving one parent family, as well as recieving 700 p/m for rent allowance and I presume the dole aswell!!!

Does this seem fair??????

I am a working mother....who comes home from work after doing a 8 hour shift to care for and mind my daughter 5 days a week and you tell me I SHOULD BE ABLE TO LIVE ON 1600 p/m!??????

Surely theres something out there that can help me????

Mrs OBumble

Calm down: I never said it wasn't hard, I just said you might like post in appropriate forum, and to give some more details so that others who have more knowledge in this area could help.

Seems to me that the first question is why your child's father isn't contributing.

Second, have you got a medical card? I suspect that your income, you'd be eligible, and this removes the risk of medical bills.

Third, are you shopping in the most cost-effective supermarkets? (You're paying twice as much per head as I am for food each week.)

Fourth, 15 per DAY to travel to/from work seems very high. Maybe it's justified, if you're paying very cheap rent (ie at home). But if you move out, you'd go somewhere closer to work so wouldn't be paying so much.

Maybe others with more knowledge of the welfare/child-support systems could give some more suggestions.

Re your comparion with your ex-'s brother's gf: I'm pretty sure that no-one gets both one-parent family at the same time. You can be caring for children full time, or available for work, but not both. In your circumstances, you may be better off not working. Or you may not - the threshold for rent-allowance is quite low, and you may not like the standard of accommodation that you can get for it. Also, we don't know what the budget will say, but it's likely that this may change the rules again. And you need to think about what you want to teach your child about normal behaviour (ie is it going to work each day, or getting money from the government).

I agree that it's unfair that some people get rent allowance on top of their benefits, and low-income workers don't. I'd suggest talking your TD about it: they can't do anything (probably), but it will take lots of lobbying to get a fairer set of rules.

cee_jay

Firstly you cannot claim one parent family and the dole together. If you have enough stamps you may be entitled to half rate jobseekers benefit with OFP. Also if you quit your job you would be disqualified from claiming jsb for up to 9 weeks. You can make a claim for one parent family as long as your earnings are below 425 euro gross a week. I'd advise you to contact your local office about that immediately. If you need somewhere to live and need rent allowance contact your CWO