Order of malta and Jobseekers

coolings

Hi guys as the title says i was wondering if it is ok to do volunteer things with the order of malta 1 or 2 days a week in the evenings and still get jobseekers becuase i am goin stur crazy here with no job and the like and i need something to do

thanks in advance

Balagan

coolings wrote: »

Hi guys as the title says i was wondering if it is ok to do volunteer things with the order of malta 1 or 2 days a week in the evenings and still get jobseekers becuase i am goin stur crazy here with no job and the like and i need something to do

thanks in advance

You need to fill out Form VW 1 (from your local SE office) and get the SW office's permission to do voluntary work. This sets out the requirements http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Pages/JobseekersVoluntaryWorkOption.aspx

coolings

Thanks Balagan im sure they would say yes to the order of malta (i hope)
but it is better then sitting on my butt and i can get reskilled there to and maybe get a differant type of job my mate is a local nurse and he got trained there and a bit in the hospital so it can help me get employed in the long run

thanks again Balagan

Fozzydog3

To be honest I wouldnt bother I was in the Civil Defence and claiming at teh same time its not like your doing anything wrong and what business is it of theirs what you do in your spare time

brembo26

Yeah, no real reason to mention it to them. I was also in civil defence and had to go to a meeting with someone from the welfare office just too see how I was getting on and just mentioned I was doing voluntary work. Just said at least i'm keeping busy and didn't have to fill out any forms.

cee_jay

Fozzydog3 wrote: »

To be honest I wouldnt bother I was in the Civil Defence and claiming at teh same time its not like your doing anything wrong and what business is it of theirs what you do in your spare time

You have to show you are looking for and available for full time work. If you are committed to volunteering, it may affect your Jobseeker's eligibility.
You are obliged to keep SW updated on any change in your circumstances, this includes starting volunteering work. If it were to come to light you were volunteering your claim would be investigated thoroughly to ensure you aren't receiving payment for your services etc.

OP all info on Volunteer work is here: http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Pages/JobseekersVoluntaryWorkOption.aspx

vikingdub

cee_jay wrote: »

You have to show you are looking for and available for full time work. If you are committed to volunteering, it may affect your Jobseeker's eligibility.
You are obliged to keep SW updated on any change in your circumstances, this includes starting volunteering work. If it were to come to light you were volunteering your claim would be investigated thoroughly to ensure you aren't receiving payment for your services etc.

OP all info on Volunteer work is here: http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Pages/JobseekersVoluntaryWorkOption.aspx

I think a lot depends on how many hours per week you will be devoting to voluntary work and also whether or not it is a long term committment. I asked social welfare about this, specifically in the case of someone who occasionally does a few hours voluntary work as required by a specific organisation. The person concerned has a particular skill which is needed occasionally by the voluntary organisation and it is expensive to hire in the expertise. Social Welfare said that it was no problem as long as the individual concerned 1) continued to actively seekpaid work and 2) remained available for full time work.

As long as you continue to apply for jobs and keep records of your applications and the employer responses (if any) you will be ok.

Having said all of that, we all know that the responses you will receive a different answer to the same question from different people in Social Welfare.

No harm in having a chat with someone in the local welfare office and explain that it will be just a few hours and it will not impact on your job search and availability.