Hours reduced at work

Evelyn Martina

Hi,

I have been informed yesterday that my hours have to be reduced to three days per week instead of five. Which is fine i saw it coming way back and i'm going to enjoy my summer:)

I know i can claim Jobseekers benefit for the days i don't work. My employer has said that i can choose myself the days which i am to work, so that i can get the most benefit money wise.

So i was wondering in relation to my claming for Jobseekers benefit which days would benefit most working on. I am considering working Mon, Tues, Wed and off Thurs and Friday?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

statss

Don't think it makes any difference what days you work, once it's approved you will need to fill out weekly slips and mark the days you did and didn't work.

Evelyn Martina

Thanks.

tatli_lokma

no it does actually. It depends on your hourly/daily rate and taking into account Public Holidays and what rate of SW you get.

You *might* be better off not working Mondays. The reason being, eventhough Monday is not your scheduled working day, your employer is obliged to pay you 1/5th of your weekly wages for Public holidays. So provided 1/5th of your weekly salary is more than 1 days SW allowance, then you would be better off with Tues/Wed/Thurs or Wed/Thur/Fri as on a week with a bank holiday you will get your normal wage for these days, plus 1/5th of your wage from your employer, plus 2 days SW.
[quote=www.welfare.ie]
Public holidays

Your employer must pay you for the public holidays which you don’t work as long as you have worked at least 40 hours in the 5 weeks immediately before the week of the public holiday. You can find more information in our document on public holidays.

If you work and get Jobseeker's Benefit, you get a daily rate of Jobseeker's Benefit for the days that you don't work. You will not get Jobseeker’s Benefit for the day you receive payment from your employer for a public holiday but you can continue to get Jobseeker’s Benefit for the other days you do not work.
[/quote]


If you work a Public Holiday Monday as normal, you will either get a paid day off or you will get double pay or you will get a normal paid day plus a paid day off. So in the week of a PH on a Monday, nd you are off monday and work Tues and Wed, but get paid for 3 days, plus 3 days SW.


Example at €8.65 per hour and a 7.5 hr working day

Normal pay for 3 days work = €194.63
SW benefit, pro-rata of €188 (single person allowance) per day = €31.33

Work Mon- Wed
PH on Monday, so you get day off.
Get paid €194.63
get 3 days SW €93.99
Total = €288.62

Work Tues - Thurs
PH on Monday
Get paid €194.63 normal wage
plus 1/5th PH payment €38.93
Get 2 days SW €62.66
Total €296.22

So in this situation it's not much - about €7. But if you get a higher hourly rate, then it might be a decent difference.

Then again, if you get a higher SW rate but not a very high hourly rate you might be better off having Mon as your normal work day.

You need to find out how much SW will give you, and then use the examples above to work out which way results in the greatest salary per week.

Mrs OBumble

If working on Sunday is an option, then I believe that you'll only be considered to be working for two days each week, ie that Sunday doesn't count as a work-day.

Procrastastudy

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

If working on Sunday is an option, then I believe that you'll only be considered to be working for two days each week, ie that Sunday doesn't count as a work-day.

Recently changed. Sunday is now counted I'm afraid.