What benefits?

sincere113

I'm married with 2 dependant children (2 & 4). Wife works 1 day a week. My job is going and I'll soon be claiming benefits if I don't find something soon. I have been in this current role for 6 years without break. How much am I entitled to per month? (excluding redundancy payment)

TheQ47

sincere113 wrote: »

I'm married with 2 dependant children (2 & 4). Wife works 1 day a week. My job is going and I'll soon be claiming benefits if I don't find something soon. I have been in this current role for 6 years without break. How much am I entitled to per month? (excluding redundancy payment)

The rates of payment are here:

Rates

Jobseeker's Benefit is not paid for the first 3 days you are unemployed (the first 3 days are any 3 days, not necessarily consecutive, in a period of six consecutive days).

Weekly Jobseeker's Benefit payment in 2010:
Avg weekly earnings..........Personal rate..........Qualified adult rate
Less than €150...................€88.10......................€84.30
€150 - €219.99..................€126.60.....................€84.30
€220 - €299.99..................€153.60.....................€84.30
€300 or more.....................€196.00....................€130.10

If your spouse is earning, then there's a graduated scale of payments for QA rate, depending on the amount of her earnings. You can also claim €24 per qualified child.

sincere113

Thanks TheQ47. But what is personal rate and QA rate. Am I the one that gets the Personal rate and my spouse gets the QA rate (sliding scale dependant upon her income)? So its PR + QA + allowance per child?

Hopefully I won't need to apply for this but I need to know soon so I can budget accordingly.

TheQ47

sincere113 wrote: »

Thanks TheQ47. But what is personal rate and QA rate. Am I the one that gets the Personal rate and my spouse gets the QA rate (sliding scale dependant upon her income)? So its PR + QA + allowance per child?

Hopefully I won't need to apply for this but I need to know soon so I can budget accordingly.

I'm sorry, I should have explained more fully. The Personal rate of any Social Welfare payment is the amount for the person claiming (in this case, you), the QA Rate is an extra allowance added onto the personal rate which you can claim for a Qualified Adult (usually your spouse/partner) and the Child Allowance is as it says. Normally the full amount is padi to you, but you can arrange for the QA rate to be paid directly to your wife, if you require.

I'll take an example, not knowing anything of your circumstances apart from what you've said above:

sincere113 wrote: »

I'm married with 2 dependant children (2 & 4). Wife works 1 day a week. My job is going and I'll soon be claiming benefits if I don't find something soon. I have been in this current role for 6 years without break. How much am I entitled to per month? (excluding redundancy payment)

So, let's say you earned €400p/w, and your wife earns less than €100p/w, and you're made redundant. Under normal circumstances, you would be entitled to the following:

Personal Rate:............. €196.00
QA Rate:.................... €130.10
DC Rate (by 2):........... € 48.00
Total weekly payment:.. €374.10
This is on top of your wife's earnings, which she can still get as normal. Jobseekers benefit is taxable.

One further thing to note, the amount of any redundancy payment you get may have an affect on when you will be able to begin receiving this payment; anything less than €50,000 will have no effect, with a delay in receiving payment of one week per €5,000 extra, e.g., redundancy of €50,000.01 to €55,000.00 = 1 week delay; €55,000.01 to €60,000.00 redundancy = 2 weeks delay, Etc.

However, you should still go to make your claim on the first day of your unemployment.

Hope this clarifies it for you, but please come back if you need more.:)

sincere113

Thank you so much for your help. Do you know if mortgage interest relief added as well?

TheQ47

sincere113 wrote: »

Thank you so much for your help. Do you know if mortgage interest relief added as well?

The Mortgage Interest Supplement (which I presume is what you're talking about) is administered by the Community Welfare Officer, so it would not be included in your normal weekly payment. It is a means tested payment, and is quite difficult to calculate how much a person may be entitled to. talk to the CWO if/when you need it.