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"Statutory Redundancy" / BTEA

  • 28-07-2011 8:15pm
    #1
    blootone
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6 ✭


    Hi folks,

    I'm hoping that someone can shed some light on this for me:

    I will hopefully be starting a college course this September and I want to apply for the Back to Education Allowance. Unfortunately, I have been unemployed only since March and so I do not meet the criterion of having been in receipt of a social welfare payment for 9 months.

    There is another way of qualifying for the BTEA, which is to have been "awarded Statutory Redundancy under Irish legislation" within the past year. I am trying to work out whether I meet this criterion.

    I was made redundant from my last-but-one job in October 2010 but had worked for the company for just 2 months and so was not entitled to any statutory redundancy payment. Fair enough, no problem there. What I can't find out is whether this constitutes being "awarded statutory redundancy".

    As far as I can make out from the relevant legislation, any redundancy that meets the statutory definition of redundancy is a "statutory redundancy". The BTEA conditions do not specify that one must have been awarded a "statutory redundancy payment" to qualify. On the other hand, it seems odd to describe being made redundant as being "awarded redundancy".
    :confused:
    So, does the fact that I was made redundant qualify me for the BTEA or do I need to have been awarded a redundancy payment to qualify?

    If I can't get BTEA, I can't afford to go to college, so my future is resting on this!
    :eek:
    Not meaning to be too melodramatic about it...

    Thanks for reading this far and please help with any info you can!


Comments

  • #2
    Melanoma
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 310 ✭✭Melanoma


    I tried to find out from the citizens advice website. Maybe if you could call into them. Putting in a letter explaining your circumstances to the social welfare crowd and detailing the unlikeness of finding employment might help. Given your time of being made redundant you might still be able to make a case. It could be worth talking to your local councillor also.

    This is a hard time and who know when it will end. I am currently being made redundant from teaching in a school for three years and I will also get no redundancy as I was not permanently employed.

    Remember though that often its when it seems unlikely to get better that it does and though the banking crisis is going to take to iron out historically they do. Fair dues to you for trying to get onto a course, if you don't then you've done all you can do. Maybe it'll turn out for the best in any event.


  • #3
    blootone
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6 ✭blootone


    Thanks, Melanoma, for your advice and kind words.
    I hope you too are able to make it through this rough patch as well as possible!

    I have in fact been in to my local SW office but the person I spoke to there - although very sympathetic - was not able to give me any idea whether my situation qualifies me for the BTEA.

    Would anyone else reading this have any idea?


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