going from foster to independent living

stephenf20

I'm posting this in the hope that it may help someone who is in the same situation that i was in.
At the age of 17 i was in foster care and knew nothing about how the system worked, and the HSE took advantage of that, messing me around at every opportunity, when i turned 18 I had to find my own place and sign on the dole, when i signed on i was told that i was only entitled to the basic €100 a week even tho i was coming from the care of the HSE, i fugured there was nothing i could do about that, i'm 20 now and 10 days ago went to my CWO as i was desperate, flat broke and up to my eye's in debt, after all i was trying to survive on €70 a week after rent, he told me something that he says he shouldn't have as people on the dole or any other state benifit must be told as little as possible about their entitlements, which i find ridiculous, he told me that i was in fact entitled to the full €188 a week from the time that i signed on due to a legality which you can find in the attached document which i got from someone who works in citizens information, i went to my local dole office and asked about this, after a few minutes of badgering the women i was dealing with she finally got the finger out and informed me that i was infact entitled to the full 188 from day 1, i am now being backdated nearly 2 years of payments totaling around €8000 which is going towards getting me a qualification and out of this country.
I hope that this post may help even one person who is or is going to be in the same situation i was in.
Remember it's the voice of the little man that speaks the loudest, speak your mind, don't let any "authority figure" tell you otherwise

Spear

Try the benefits forum instead:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=861

stephenf20

Spear wrote: »

Try the benefits forum instead:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=861

thank's im kind of new to boards.ie ha