Am I entitled to anything?

JessieJ

Hey,

My situation is that I am unemployed for almost a year. I am under 25 years old and live at home and as such, I know I am not entitled to the dole.

However, my mother recently lost her job and so is now claiming the dole. My father's wage is low; take home pay is about 1300 a month.

I feel that I am in a catch-22 situation. I live at home because I cant afford to move out. If I did move out, I know I could claim the dole but I don't have enough finance to even move out! I wouldn't be able to afford a deposit on a room or anything.

Would I be entitled to any payment from the CWO; such as the supplementary welfare allowance? I don't have any income.

Lugh Ildanach

Just because you live at home doesn't mean that you can't get the dole.

Firstly, if you have sufficient PRSI stamps (at least 104) then you may have been eligible for Jobseekers Benefit, although you are supposed to claim this as soon as you become unemployed, so there might be difficulties with that at this stage.

If you do not have sufficient PRSI stamps, then you can apply for Jobseekers Allowance. Because you are under 25 and living at home, the general rule is that your parent's income is taken into account in the means test process. With income from your parents as set out above, it is likely that you would qualify for a payment.

The calculation is made as follows:

They take your parents' gross weekly income from employment and from the dole, and then deduct the following:

- income tax
- prsi
- usc
- any superannuation/prsa
- union contributions
- rent or mortgage

And then deduct 600 euro from that, as well as an addition 30 euro for each sibling who is living in the house with you. Once you have made all these reductions, you take 34% of the balance and that's the amount that is deducted from your payment.

So, for example if your parents' income is 188 (dole) plus the 300 earned income (1300x12/52 to convert it to weekly figure) gives a total income of 488 Euro. Even with no mortgage or rent costs, you can apply the 600 Euro disregard, and would therefore be assessed as being eligible for the full payment (100 Euro for 18-21 year olds, 150 for 22-24 year olds)

Also, just for information, if you are living in your parent's house with your own spouse or partner, or if you have lived independently for three years outside of the home and have returned, then your parents' income is not taken into account at all.

JessieJ

Thanks very much for that. I've no experience with welfare payments so I'm a bit lost and confused!

I'm not entitled to JB because I don't have the necessary PRSI stamps.

Hopefully something will work out for me! A job preferably...!

Lugh Ildanach

You should definitely go down and make a claim for JA. You complete the application and the means test, the worst that will happen is that you're above the limit, but from those figures it would seem you would get a payment.

Also, once you have made the claim for JA (which will take some time to process) you can make an application for Supplementary Welfare Allowance from the CWO. Your parents' income will be assessed in the same way by the CWO, but it will happen much quicker.

amtw

Unfortuantely the CWO applies even more stringent rules to means test then the Social Welfare office. You should though apply for a medical card as you should be able to get one in your own right. Even if you aren't eligible for a payment you should still sign on because there may be FAS courses or other training oportunities that you can avail of if you are getting credits.

You may also be entitled to Back to Education Allowance. To get this payment you must be getting one of the social welfare payments that qualify you for the payment. So even if you are means tested on your parents income and you are only entitled to the minimum payment of €20 it is worth getting it because if you later decide to apply for Back to Education allowance it is paid at the full amount (ie €188 for Jobseekers Allowance).

The Citizens Information website www.citizensinformation.ie has all the information you might need and they have offices all over the country if you want to drop in to them.

Lugh Ildanach

The CWO rules for benefit and privilege are the same as the Social Welfare rules, so if the above figures are correct, you should be able to get a payment, although individual CWOs may ask for more evidence than your average Social Welfare deciding officer will.

Its still worth making the application for SWA, although if you can survive in the meantime, you will get your JA backdated once the claim has been processed.