Friends benefits discontinued

thebman

A friend of mine has had her benefits discontinued.

She is in full time education for a masters technically however she only registered to submit her thesis and does not actually attend lectures so is seeking work.

She got a letter from the college saying as much and they still declined her.

I was just wondering is there anything she can do or she might be entitled to claim as otherwise she will have to drop out and considering all she signed up to do was submit her masters thesis which she will lose if she drops out after doing all the work already and just basically waiting for results now, she is lost as to what to do.

Her parents can't afford to cover it either as another person in the family is now attending college so she literally is out of options if she isn't entitled to anything.

Atlantis50

thebman wrote: »

A friend of mine has had her benefits discontinued.

She is in full time education for a masters technically however she only registered to submit her thesis and does not actually attend lectures so is seeking work.

She got a letter from the college saying as much and they still declined her.

I was just wondering is there anything she can do or she might be entitled to claim as otherwise she will have to drop out and considering all she signed up to do was submit her masters thesis which she will lose if she drops out after doing all the work already and just basically waiting for results now, she is lost as to what to do.

Her parents can't afford to cover it either as another person in the family is now attending college so she literally is out of options if she isn't entitled to anything.

Appeal the decision:

(d) Students completing theses/projects:
The legislation provides for disqualification while attending a full-time day course of study. Third level students who have completed final examinations but are completing theses or projects cannot be regarded as still attending a full-time day course of study and, therefore, cannot be disqualified under this provision. Entitlement may, however, be considered under the availability condition, - Section 141 (4)(c) depending on the degree of commitment to the project/thesis.
(e) Postgraduate (research) students:
Students pursuing a course at Postgraduate level by research only, who do not have fixed lectures or holidays but who work "at their own pace" until the thesis is submitted should have their entitlement examined. Each case should be examined on an individual basis to ensure that the general availability/ GSW conditions are satisfied.

http://www.welfare.ie/en/operationalguidelines/pages/ja_jobseekall.aspx

thebman

She did appeal it apparently it was rejected. Can she appeal again?

She is over 25 so qualifies as mature student I think, does that change it? From reading that it seems like it might.

tramoreman

thebman wrote: »

She did appeal it apparently it was rejected. Can she appeal again?

She is over 25 so qualifies as mature student I think, does that change it? From reading that it seems like it might.

if she is doing it from home she should go in and find out beacuase i cant see why not

if you are attending college full time its a different story

amtw

I presume she had been on jobseekers if so she has to prove that she is available for work and actively seeking work. She should ask for a review setting out exactly how much time she spends working on her thesis. If she can show that she can fit it in in the evenings and at weekends then she is still available for work during the day. She should also show proof that she is genuinely seeking work: emails and applications etc, make sure she is registered with FAS. They cannot deny her a payment if she can prove the above.

Lugh Ildanach

IF the appeal has already been decided, and if there has apparently been a mistake made by the appeals officer, you can ask for the appeal to be looked at again by the Chief Appeals Officer.

If there is a point of law, you can appeal the decision to the High Court.

thebman

Does anybody else have any advice here, this is still ongoing and my friend is horribly bankrupt and getting summons for court. It is summer so they are 100% eligible for work but social welfare officer insists they need a letter from college who refuse to provide the wording that the officer is demanding.

I have lent my friend a few thousand now just to keep them out of court and she has had to move back to her parents.

phormium

Possibly she should call into local Citizens Information Office, they may be able to advise her and help with appeal if you get the right person.

Balagan

From your February posts it would seem that your friend was on a Jobseekers payment and, while receiving it, registered full time with a college in order to be able to submit her thesis and subsequently had her payment stopped. Had she asked the Social Welfare for permission to do that in advance of registering full time, she would have learned, going on existing guidelines, that it was not possible for her to do that and retain her payment, nor would it have been covered under the Back to Education Allowance Scheme. This is a very different scenario to the usual one, which posters have quoted here, where a student has finished lectures, completed exams and is allowed to claim from then eventhough their thesis is not due for for submission for a couple of months and they finish it on their own time.

Your friend is not likely to have the appeal decision overturned. She might consider looking to MABS http://www.mabs.ie/ for help in sorting our her finances. They are really helpful. Also she should know that the St Vincent de Paul https://www.svp.ie/Home.aspx is always there to help to keep body and soul together.

thebman

Balagan wrote: »

From your February posts it would seem that your friend was on a Jobseekers payment and, while receiving it, registered full time with a college in order to be able to submit her thesis and subsequently had her payment stopped. Had she asked the Social Welfare for permission to do that in advance of registering full time, she would have learned, going on existing guidelines, that it was not possible for her to do that and retain her payment, nor would it have been covered under the Back to Education Allowance Scheme. This is a very different scenario to the usual one, which posters have quoted here, where a student has finished lectures, completed exams and is allowed to claim from then eventhough their thesis is not due for for submission for a couple of months and they finish it on their own time.

Your friend is not likely to have the appeal decision overturned. She might consider looking to MABS http://www.mabs.ie/ for help in sorting our her finances. They are really helpful. Also she should know that the St Vincent de Paul https://www.svp.ie/Home.aspx is always there to help to keep body and soul together.

Okay but she has submitted the thesis and is only technically in full time education now waiting on results.

Would she not be entitled to something over summer since she is 100% eligible for work in a full time position?

She said, she checked the guidelines and it said in the guidelines that u can get benefit if u r doing postgraduate course in ur own time which she is doing.

ShaShaBear

Its not in her own time if she is registered as being in full-time education.
It's on full-time college time. You can't be in full-time education and get benefits, unless you apply for BTEA (which doesn't apply in this case). Whether or not she went to lectures is irrelevant, if it is a full-time course, she's in college full-time, and not entitled. I think she may be mixing up the fact that she assumes since she doesn't attend college, she's not full-time with the fact that the college cannot write a letter stating that she is not full-time when she is.

thebman

Ok update on this is she dropped out of college, doesn't have the money to continue do went for assessment again.

Now they saying she is not entitled to anything because she moved back home with parents and they earn enough to support her and saying if she survived 6 months without it then she obviously isn't in need if it.

But she is like 28 and her parents don't have the money to support her because they paying for her brother to go to school in UK.

Is there anything she can do from this situation? With zero job prospects in her village, she has to get out if she is to have any hope of getting a job.

wmpdd3

Once she's over 25, her parents income isnt taken into account. Sounds like a mistake on the Welfares part.

djk1000

Get her to lodge an appeal again, her parents income shouldn't count. Once that's done, she should go to her community welfare officer and explain the situation. The CWO has discretion to authorise payments in the meantime.

I've been through their bull**** too, you try to get off your backside and make yourself more employable and you get nothing but heartache.