OPF and work and FIS???

danois

I am currently on the OPF payment and have finally secured a job

I was hoping to be able to give up the OPF as I will be entitled to FIS but the thing is I will be working 39 hours a week until the 1st of September after that I will only be working 20 hours a week. If I claim Fis before September will they re adjust for the drop in hours?

Or would I be better off not claiming FIS and just claiming what ever I am entitled to on OPF?

Thanks for reading just find all the welfare stuff so confusing!!

mp22

How many children,and aprox how much per hour would you be on.

danois

Sorry I should of included this info. I have 3 kids and I will be on €9.50 p/h

mp22

It looks like Fis is pay'ed for a year at the rate you start at.

work 39 hours /week fis=aprox 193
work 20 hours /week fis=aprox 307
work 39 hours / week opf= aprox 78
work 20 hours / week opf=aprox 135

There is no allowances taken into account with these, double check if you are going to use any of these figures,it looks like opf until your hours are reduced to 20 then fis.


Opf from here http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/reference/worksheets/worksheet_one_parent_family_payment_and_income_from_work.html


FIS from here http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/reference/worksheets/worksheet_how_to_calculate_your_family_income_supplement.html

http://whatsnew.citizensinformation.ie/2011/02/28/reduced-pay-and-family-income-supplement-fis/

danois

Thanks a million for that I would be still here till next week trying to figure it all out.

yabadabado

FIS will not adjust your payment it's set from the date of application for 52weeks.When you go to 20hrs per week if you apply for FIS, you can claim FIS and OFP as long as you are under the limit(€703 for 3 kids).
EDIT:FIS use net pay (gross minus PRSI,PAYE,USC,Superannuation) so the figues will be hifger than the above quoted and the figure is rounded up.

Lugh Ildanach

Even on 9.50/hour and 39 hours, you will still be able to keep your OPFP book. That works out as a gross of 370.50. You can earn up to 425 a week and keep your book.

You can apply for FIS on top of this if you are working 19 hours or more. As above poster says, they will not re-adjust in the middle of the year if your income goes down (or the other way round either).

I'd calculate (roughly) that on 39 hours at that rate would be entitled to:

370.50 wages
172 OPFP
96 FIS

total: 638.50

If you waited until September then you would get the following:

190 wages
262.40 OPFP
150.36 FIS

602.76

If you waited until September to apply for FIS, then you would be losing out on a FIS payment of 98 Euro for three months (about 300 Euro). You would however get an extra 60 Euro payment each month for the year (540 Euro), so you would be up more than 200 Euro in the year by delaying your FIS application.

However, as you don't know how your circumstances will change in the future, you can't be sure that this is how it will work out, and it may be that you are better off applying for the FIS now and having it in your hand!!!