Redunant soon, have new job on horizon, but no start date...

JB_question

Apologies if this has been asked before, but I tried searching the forum, and couldn't narrow down any posts with people in the same positions. Also, I will be contacting Citizens Information on Monday to see if they can help, but I'd love to know if anyone else was/is in the same boat?

I'm being made redundant in a month, however I am also well placed on a panel for a public service job. They have begun taking from the panel recently, but we have no idea when we are going to get called for the next batch. It could be in two months, it could be in twelve months. I'm very lucky to be getting a good redundancy payment due to the length of my employment with the company, however I will eventually have to sign on for Jobseeker's Benefit if I don't get called before that runs out.

My question is, that will they accept the letter confirming my placement on the panel as satisfactory evidence of future employment or will I have to immediately start applying for other jobs or start taking courses, to continue to receive the Jobseeker's Benefit? I'm trying not to sound ungrateful, but if I did start a job, chances are I would be leaving quite soon after, once we get called.

danjo-xx

You will probably be given a progression plan and encouraged to do a course.

As regards redundancy:

Redundancy
If you are under 55 and get a redundancy payment of more than €50,000 you are disqualified from claiming Jobseeker's Benefit. The table below shows how long you may be disqualified for. The length of the disqualification is at the discretion of the deciding officer (who can take your circumstances into account). Any period of disqualification is subtracted from your total Jobseeker's Benefit entitlement. So if you are disqualified for 3 weeks (which is 18 days payment) your JB claim starts on day 19. Note that people who take voluntary redundancy and do not get a redundancy payment of over €50,000 can claim jobseeker's payments immediately.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/unemployed_people/jobseekers_benefit.html

Balagan

A person who has recently become unemployed (e.g. within the last 3 months) would be regarded as available where s/he is seeking to become re-employed in his/her usual employment, provided there is a reasonable prospect of this. However, if it was immediately obvious that there was no employment available within a specialised field in the local area, the person could be expected to broaden the search - either to a wider area or to other types of employment within a shorter period.

For example, a computer programmer who indicates that s/he will only work at programming, may stand in the current economic climate, a reasonable chance of securing employment despite such a restriction. However, such a restriction would not be reasonable if the person still had no employment after 3 months on the Live Register.

If a person has not found employment within his/her chosen field or industry within a reasonable period (e.g. 3 months), and the person is not broadening the range of employment sought, the onus is on the person to demonstrate that s/he still has a reasonable chance of obtaining employment in that field despite failure to do so to date. For instance, in a situation where a person is promised permanent work in the near future on the basis that s/he must be free to take it up immediately, it may then be considered reasonable to refuse an offer of short term employment in the interim. http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Jobseekers-Benefit.aspx

JB_question

Thank you both for the information!