Not Eligible? WTF

Rob113

Bit of background. Have been working for past 14yrs. Never claimed a penny social welfare in that time. Have never been unemployed, always paid tax etc.

Took a self employed role with a company for 17 months. Sep 2007 - Aug 2009. Since then I've been back in full time paye employment.

I've been out of work sick the past 4 weeks. Not receiving a penny sick pay from my employer, which is fair enough. Tried to make a claim for illness benefit and got a letter back in the post saying I'm ineligible because I wasn't in paye employment for long enough in 2009!!!

What about the other 12yrs of tax/prsi etc I've paid.

To me that's an absolute joke. Rang them and queried and was told that I also wouldn't be entitled to the dole if I was to become unemployed for the same reason.

The systems f#cked if you ask me. People out there blatantly scamming the system and I can't even claim 4 weeks illness benefit

grungepants

Shocking....the system we have is about as fast as a 90year old woman and makes as much sence as an episode of takeshi's castle.

R P McMurphy

The reference year for this year would be 2009. Is unfair BTW

mp22

If you do not have 13 paid contributions in the relevant tax year, the following years can be used to meet this condition:

• The 2 tax years before the relevant tax year
• The last complete tax year,

from here http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/disability_and_illness/disability_benefit.html

eastbono

mp22 wrote: »

If you do not have 13 paid contributions in the relevant tax year, the following years can be used to meet this condition:

• The 2 tax years before the relevant tax year
• The last complete tax year,

from here http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/disability_and_illness/disability_benefit.html

In order to claim jsb in 2011 you have to have 39 "a" cons in the governing year which is 2009 and a total of 104 "a" cons paid or 26 "a" contributions in the relevant year eg. for 2011 its 2009 and 26 in 2008 and a total of 104 "a" cons paid . OP can apply for Jobseekers Allowance which is means tested.

mystic

Rob

You didn't qualify for Illness Benefit because you had class S PRSI contributions for the period you were self-employed (Sep 2007 - Aug 2009).

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Publications/SW119/Pages/3HowmanyPRSIcontributionsdoIneedforIllnessBenefit.aspx

'You must have:

1....at least 104 weeks PRSI contributions paid since you first started work,
and
2....39 weeks PRSI contributions paid or credited in the relevant tax year (13 of these must be paid contributions),
or
26 weeks PRSI contributions paid in the relevant tax year and 26 weeks PRSI contributions paid in the tax year immediately before the relevant tax year.
The relevant tax year is the second last complete tax year before the year in which you claim Illness Benefit.

Only PRSI paid in classes A, E, H and P count towards Illness Benefit.'

You satisfy 1 but appear not to satisfy 2 because you had Class S PRSI for 8 months of 2009. The maximum possible number of Class A contributions for 2009 would only be approximately 20 (the exact number would be on your P60 for 2009).

You should apply for Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA) from the Community Welfare Officer (CWO) usually at your local Health Centre. http://www.hse.ie/eng/services/Find_a_Service/LHO/

Bring along the refusal letter from Illness Benefit (IB) and ask for the payment to be back-dated to the date of your claim for IB. S/he will be able to look up your PRSI contributions. They may ask the reason why you are late claiming SWA. You could say that you expected to qualify for Illness Benefit.....which is reasonable imo.

The CWO has discretion to back-date a claim under certain circumstances.

If you have a recurrence of your illness in 2011, you will not qualify and should apply for SWA instead. If you become unemployed in 2011, you will not qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit abd should apply for Jobseeker's Allowance instead.

If you get sick or become unemployed in 2012, your PRSI contributions will qualify you for Illness Benefit or Jobseeker's Benefit.

Hope this helps.

tenchi-fan

the only welfare recipients the "system" allows are the long-term unemployed (/unemployable), single moms and the elderly. And even then, the government have starting chipping away at the elderly category.

The medical card is already being means-tested, free travel, tv licences and subsidised utilities will probably be next to go, and the age of retirement will be 67 soon. there is absolutely no point in paying into the system because you won't get anything back out of it.