Students cannot sign on during the summer, can they?

Croppy Bhoy

I'm in third level education and after paying a great deal this year (€5.8k) and facing another huge fee next year (€2.5k) I desperately need a job. It's not a great situation to be in as while I might not be able to afford university, after having paid €5.8k for first year (as it is my second time in college) I can't exactly drop out which is pretty much money down the drain.

Now I've seen a WW2 placement I would be (if I may say so myself >_>) the ideal candidate for the position in question, I would love to do it and it would really benefit me... however I need to earn money over the summer to pay for uni next year.

Am I eligible for the placement, and am I allowed to sign on? It seems absurd that someone who's not really interested in looking for work would be allowed to claim the dole, while a young person desperate to finish education, get a degree and get a job would be denied the opportunity.

Nody

As a student you can't claim dole during the summer (unless you finished as of that summer); don't know if you can sign up for WW2 or not though.

tenchi-fan

No, students cannot sign on during the summer.

As for WPPs, WPPs are for unemployed people who have been unable to find paid work and want to keep their skills fresh and enable them to re-enter the workforce. This isn't suitable for your situation, as you would immediately be exiting the workforce to return to education.

WPPs themselves are unpaid, and there's no reason why you couldn't find an employer willing to let you work for free during the summer.

However social welfare recipients are allowed to retain their payment. You're not a social welfare recipient, so even if you got a WPP placement you will not be paid.

I can understand your frustration about lack of funding, though. A few years ago I wanted to return to education and found it prohibitively expensive so ended up just staying in my current career, as soul destroying as it is. I plan to do a part-time distance learning course this year and see where things go from there.

A bit of a reality check though. The €5.8k fee was a result of your decision to leave college the first time, and secondly your decision to return to college.
Also, the average US student leaves college with $25k student debt. The government(s) of Ireland can be blamed for a lot of things, but mistreating students is not one of them. Around half of students get a grant and some pay no fees at all. Have a read of some of the articles concerning student finances here : http://moneywatch.bnet.com/search/?q=student

Croppy Bhoy

tenchi-fan wrote: »

WPPs themselves are unpaid, and there's no reason why you couldn't find an employer willing to let you work for free during the summer.

Yes there is, the reason is that I can't afford to do that.

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Mind you, the whole WPP thing doesn't half look like employers getting desperate people to work for them without having to actually pay them. Very nice.

Mrs OBumble

I'm moving this to State Benefits, because

1) that's what it's really about, and
2) the mods there have already thought through the issues about the acceptability of certain statements about job-less people, so they're better placed than me to decide about a recent post.

Croppy Bhoy

What on earth was unacceptable about my comment? Do you deny that some people claiming Job Seekers are not actually looking for work? I should know, I was one of them in the past.

mp22

Closed