JB: Technicality difficulties.

passive

Hey everyone. I had some difficulty with my application for JB, due to studying abroad for part of the relevant tax year, but at the time I thought I was going to get the same on JB as JA, so I didn't make a big fuss of the matter. Now I'm about to get JA for the first time today, and it's €90 (should be €100, but they gave me 0 siblings on the means form, instead of 1 in 3rd level, and fixing this clerical error apparently requires an entire appeals office, and will thus take months.)

I don't expect to be on SW for anything more than a few weeks, but while I am, I'd like to get what I'm actually entitled to. So here's the situation. I worked in a cinema from June 2005 to June 2009, excepting 10 months I spent on an Erasmus year in France in 2007/2008. So as regards my stamps, I have 36 in 2007 and 25 in 2008, and, even if I can get over the hurdle of being one stamp short in 2008, my JB would be calculated from my average earnings for the year, during which I only worked half the weeks.

Is there any way I can appeal to get JB, despite the missing stamp? And if I do, is there any way my rate of benefit can be calculated from the time I was working, rather than that income divided over the 52 weeks of the year, including the ones spent in France? (Erasmus year was part of my full time third level course with an Irish university, if that helps.)

Also, regarding the under 25's Jobseekers allowance; on the citizens information site it says that there's an exception for if " You were at least 20 years of age on 30 December 2009 and became unemployed on or before 30 December 2009." I'm 23, and finished working in June 2009 to travel to Australia, returning in February. I (obviously) didn't apply for payment for anything prior to my return to Ireland, but where does that exception put me as regards the €150 limit?

Thanks for any help you can provide. I should have pressed the JB issue when I was first applying, but I genuinely thought it was all equal, and I'd get about €150 either way, so there was no point dealing with all the messiness surrounding my stamps etc. I figured this was the best place to ask, instead of wasting someone's time with awkward questions in the absurdly busy office...

passive

Anyone have any ideas on this? My JA payment actually turned out to be 74.20, for reasons I cannot figure out (The payslip thing said my base rate was €125 and my means 50.03, instead of €150 and €61, respectively, as the letter told me I'd be getting.) So this is somewhat more pressing a matter, and I'll need to be making several more trips to the office to get this fixed, at the very least....

cee_jay

passive wrote: »

So here's the situation. I worked in a cinema from June 2005 to June 2009, excepting 10 months I spent on an Erasmus year in France in 2007/2008. So as regards my stamps, I have 36 in 2007 and 25 in 2008, and, even if I can get over the hurdle of being one stamp short in 2008, my JB would be calculated from my average earnings for the year, during which I only worked half the weeks.

Is there any way I can appeal to get JB, despite the missing stamp? And if I do, is there any way my rate of benefit can be calculated from the time I was working, rather than that income divided over the 52 weeks of the year, including the ones spent in France? (Erasmus year was part of my full time third level course with an Irish university, if that helps.)

If you are short one stamp, you are short one stamp, and there is no way around this, appeal or not. The only way you may have extra stamps for that year is if you worked and paid social insurance while in France - you could transfer these stamps from France to Ireland to help you qualify.

If you think the means are calculated incorrectly, you need to submit an appeal to your local office. It doesn't necessarily have to go to the appeals office, they will look at the decision on means, and can do a revised decision if it is wrong. However, if they still think it's right, then it goes to the appeal office.

You need to go into the office and discuss your means with them - they can explain the figures to you.

passive

cAr0l wrote: »

If you are short one stamp, you are short one stamp, and there is no way around this, appeal or not.

If you think the means are calculated incorrectly, you need to submit an appeal to your local office. It doesn't necessarily have to go to the appeals office, they will look at the decision on means, and can do a revised decision if it is wrong. However, if they still think it's right, then it goes to the appeal office.

You need to go into the office and discuss your means with them - they can explain the figures to you.

Thanks for this. I'll go in and talk to them tomorrow, and I suppose I'll have to give up on the stamps. I don't think they calculated anything wrong as regards my parents income etc, so it should be a simple enough matter of fixing the error regarding my sibling, for the €10. I've no idea where the other €15 went between the letter and what they gave me today, but I'll query that too and see how it goes...