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Back to Education

  • 14-08-2013 1:03pm
    #1
    Dick Masterson
    Closed Accounts Posts: 64 ✭✭


    Hi, I'm hoping to start Back to Education next September (2014) as I'm currently on disability since September 2011; however, I'm hoping to be at full health and off disability by early next year as I'm planning to traveling to a foreign county dental work that is for too expensive in Ireland. I'm hoping to leave by February and return to Ireland by June. Well I get back, I will be applying for my Back to Education course and I presume I'll be on Job Seekers until the course starts.

    I've been reading other back to education threads and people are saying I need to be unemployed for 9 months to receive before I can qualify of Back to Education Allowance.

    Is this the same for me? Will I be entitled Back to Education Allowance next September?


Comments

  • #2
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 166,026 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Disability allowance is one of the qualifying SW payments that you need to be in receipt of in order to claim BTEA, so the time that you have spent on that should count towards the nine month period.
    However, if you sign off disability in January, I assume that what you are planning to do is claim unemployment? You will not be able to sign on and claim for the months that you are abroad getting the dental work done. If you sign on before you leave you will have to sign off before you go and re open a new claim when you come home in June. As you have been on disability since 2011, you will probably be put on unemployment allowance, not benefit as you probably will not have the stamps worked up. There is a means test for unemployment allowance and depending on where you live, the waiting period for this can be quite long. One of the qualifying criteria for BTEA is that you are on a qualifying SW payment immediately prior to starting the course. Supplementary welfare allowance from your community welfare officer doesn't count. Essentially there would be no guarantee that your claim for UA would have come through in time for you to start the course in September. Have a look here:
    http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/back_to_education/back_to_education_allowance.html


  • #3
    ShaShaBear
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,528 ✭✭✭ShaShaBear


    Dick Masterson wrote: »
    Hi, I'm hoping to start Back to Education next September (2014) as I'm currently on disability since September 2011; however, I'm hoping to be at full health and off disability by early next year as I'm planning to traveling to a foreign county dental work that is for too expensive in Ireland. I'm hoping to leave by February and return to Ireland by June. Well I get back, I will be applying for my Back to Education course and I presume I'll be on Job Seekers until the course starts.

    I've been reading other back to education threads and people are saying I need to be unemployed for 9 months to receive before I can qualify of Back to Education Allowance.

    Is this the same for me? Will I be entitled Back to Education Allowance next September?

    Qualifying period
    For second level courses you must have been getting a qualifying social welfare payment (see above) for at least 3 months (78 days of unemployment*). You must be getting the qualifying paymentimmediately before you start the course.

    For third level courses you must have been getting a qualifying social welfare payment (see above) for 9 months (234 days of unemployment*). You must be getting the qualifying payment immediately before you start the course.

    *If you are getting a jobseeker's payment, each day you are unemployed, except Sunday, is counted as a day of unemployment.

    Satisfying the qualifying period
    You do not have to have been getting your qualifying payment continuously. Periods spent on other relevant social welfare payments (or getting credits or in short-term employment) that are not broken by more than 12 months (52 weeks) can be used to determine whether you satisfy the qualifying period criteria. You must always be getting a qualifying payment immediately before starting your course.

    - Simply put, you should be fine. You do not have to be unemployed for 9 months - you simply have to claim the relevant SW payment for a total of 9 months (which do not have to be continuous, but you MUST be on a SW claim when you put the application in for BTEA.)


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