Am I entitled to jobseekers allowance.

Azza

Self employeed IT contractor. 5 month contract finished up last month and I was told there was a strong possibility of more work in September. Went down to social welfare to sign back onto jobseeks allowance until the new contract started.

They said they would have to means test me, told me to bring in back statements which I did.
Was basically told that because I earned so much from the last contract, I wasn't likely to be given any jobseekers allowance and that I'd be expected to live off my savings. He wasn't quite sure and said he would look into this, hasn't got back to me yet. Was about a week ago. Its odd because I've meet people in a similar position to me, who said they had no problem signing on and off between contracts.

With savings before the last contract and what I saved from the work had just under €10k in the bank. I have currently no source of income. I thought that people where allowed up to €20,000 before it affected a claim for jobseekers allowance.

Anyone able to help?

danjo-xx

you are correct in that the first €20k is disregarded (not counted as means) can't offer any advice on your other comments except to say that if you have nothng to live on then you should make a claim at your local health centre for Supplementary Welfare Allowance http://www.welfare.ie/EN/OperationalGuidelines/Pages/swa.aspx while waiting for this to be sorted.

mia78

with self employment its generally sent to social welfare officer for investigation and on applying for jobseekers allowance the assess means against you these means are usually based on income you have received in the last year and averaged out to assess whats taken off you per week so maybe based on your income in last few months you have earned too much??