Unemployment Benefit - getting temp job

sillysocks

I'm currently on Unemployment Benefit after my company closed late last year. I'v been getting it for about 5.5 months now, and have an interview next week for a temporary job. Im not sure how long the temporary contract will be for but have been trying to work out what will happen with the UB after the temp contract. Struggling to understand some of the info online.

Is there a minimum length of time that I need to be back at work for in order to re-qualify for the 9 months of UB again? If my contract is too short to re-qualify for the fully 9 months again, can I re-sign on for the few months that's left on the current length of my UB claim?

Up to signing on for the UB in December last year I had worked for 10 years + so would have plenty of contributions in previous years.

danjo-xx

sillysocks wrote: »

Is there a minimum length of time that I need to be back at work for in order to re-qualify for the 9 months of UB again?

13 weeks is the general rule to requalify.

Re-qualifying for Jobseeker's Benefit
You can re-qualify for JB if:

You have used up your full JB entitlement (either 9 or 6 months)
and

You have paid 13 PRSI contributions for at least 13 weeks (these contributions can be counted only after you have claimed at least 156 days (6 months) of JB)
However if you are working and claiming JB (systematic short-time workers and part-time workers) you cannot simply continue your JB claim when it is exhausted since you must have suffered a substantial loss of employment to re-qualify for JB, (unless you are a casual worker).

If you have lost your job you will have suffered a substantial loss of employment. If you are a part-time or systematic short-time worker DSP will look at your pattern of employment over the last 13 weeks or another representative period to find out whether you have suffered a substantial loss of employment.

For example, if you are getting JB and working 3 days each week as a systematic short-time worker or a part-time worker and your employment pattern has not changed during the course of your JB claim, you will not have suffered a substantial loss of employment and will not re-qualify for Jobseeker’s Benefit when you exhaust your claim. However, if your JB claim ends and your 3 day week working week is then reduced to a 2 day week, you will have suffered a substantial loss of employment and may re-qualify for Jobseeker’s Benefit.

Linking claims
If you claim JB for a period, sign off and then claim JB again within 26 weeks your claim may be linked to the earlier claim. This means that your claim is not treated as a new claim and:

You do not have to wait for 3 days before getting your payment
The cumulative total of days from the previous claim is continued (so, for example, if you have used up 100 days of your total JB entitlement of 234 days you have 134 days remaining on your claim)
The rate of JB is the same rate payable as on the previous claim, unless there has been a budgetary increase or change in family circumstances (such as a new child dependant).
If your JB claim does not link to a previous claim it is treated as a new claim. You must wait for 3 days before getting a payment and your cumulative total of days starts from the first day of payment.

You can read more about linking claims including information on linking to a different scheme (such as Illness Benefit) and linking to an earlier JB claim through a different scheme or period spent in training or on an employment scheme.

sillysocks

Thanks,
I'm a bit confused though then when it starts talking about linking claims if there's less than 26 weeks between them. So wasn't quite sure if I can start from scratch with 9 more months of entitlement after 13 or 26 weeks.

eastbono

If you sign back on within 6 months of your previous claim then your repeat claim will be linked to the previous claim. So you cannot start from scratch. But if you benefit does exhaust after signing back on and you have 13 a class contributions paid after day 156 then when you benefit exhausts you will requalify.