Hours Cut - Options Available

Shades799

Hi Folks,

I have a friend who graduated from college in 2011. She has a social care degree and is currently working with a company she had been working with for the past few years (whilst in college).

Over the past year or so she has taken a pay cut and now her hours have been reduced so her wage has gone down from 2100 per month to approx 1300pm.

The complication is that her employer made her set herself up as a sole trader (wrongly IMO but that's another story) so she hasn't been paying PRSI and has only been paying the tax on her income as any sole trader would.

I know this story is repeated all over the country but she's a hard worker, whose worked her way through college and I was hoping the great boardie folk out there might have some advice on her options and entitlements. She just moved into her first new place (she signed the lease before she was told about her shift cuts) so she's going to look for some retail work and that sort of thing to supplement her income but until then is there anything she can do to help her out while she searches for other work?

Many Thanks for any advice and if anyone else is in a similar situation please feel free to jump on the thread

culsoh

Has her days been cut or hours per day? If your friend only works a couple of days of the week now your friend would be entitled to Part Time Jobseekers Benefit payment for the days they is not working.

However, if their hours have been cut but they still work 4+ days per week they are not entitled to any Jobseekers payment.

wmpdd3

This may not be the case if she is 'self employed' she should speak to her accountant to see if she can fix her prsi record,

Shades799

culsoh wrote: »

Has her days been cut or hours per day? If your friend only works a couple of days of the week now your friend would be entitled to Part Time Jobseekers Benefit payment for the days they ..

Thank you both for your responses. Her days can be fluctuating. So she might work 6 days one week and then not again for another 10 days. I'll ask her to have a look into that and see what that means for her.

As for the PRSI, I'll also ask her to talk to her accountant, although her company employs the accountant so I'm not sure if the accountant really has her interests at heart.

Thanks again.

Mrs OBumble

She should also go and talk to Welfare. She *may* be able to sign for casual job-seekers allowance for weeks when she works less than 3 days.

I suspect Revenue would also be interested in her PAYE-worker non-status, but this interest may not have the consequences she would like.

Is there any other social care work she could do, eg through a temping agency? That'd be better than retail, 'cos she would be free to turn down shifts if they conflict with what the current job has her on.

Shades799

A temping agency is a great idea actually. I'll let her know about all these ideas, many thanks for the help.