Requalifying for Jobseekers Benefit

georgewickstaff

Hi all,

My wife is a casual worker. Will work all shifts provided she is called in etc

Her jobseekers benefit will expire in 20 days. She has been asked to submit a breakdown of work done over last 13 weeks.

(1) It looks like she will only have 8 contributions for these 13 weeks required.
(2) Some weeks she has 3 or 4 days work. Other weeks nothing. January and February are very lean months.

In order to requalify does she have to make 13 contributions in a row? Or is it 13 contributions from day 156 of claiming Benefit?
Also, if there is no work some weeks and 3 days other weeks will this be viewed as a substantial loss of income? I'm not sure how they would approach this?

Many thanks for any help

danjo-xx

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.

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

georgewickstaff

Thank you. That is very helpful.

She will have to make a new claim when the 13 contributions have been clocked up. Weirdly, I think my wife has only 8 contributions as she is paid bi-weekly which would mean if she was paid by the week she probably would have had 13.

Seems a little bit unfair? Sure who am I to wonder!

Thanks again for your kind assistance

mp22

She will receive a stamp for every week worked,no matter how often she gets paid.

antoinette 1

Can you requalify for illness benefit if you claimed it for 2 years then got jobseekers benefit but got ill again?

Chieftain

georgewickstaff wrote: »

Hi all,

My wife is a casual worker. Will work all shifts provided she is called in etc

Her jobseekers benefit will expire in 20 days. She has been asked to submit a breakdown of work done over last 13 weeks.

(1) It looks like she will only have 8 contributions for these 13 weeks required.
(2) Some weeks she has 3 or 4 days work. Other weeks nothing. January and February are very lean months.

In order to requalify does she have to make 13 contributions in a row? Or is it 13 contributions from day 156 of claiming Benefit?
Also, if there is no work some weeks and 3 days other weeks will this be viewed as a substantial loss of income? I'm not sure how they would approach this?

Many thanks for any help

Just to make you aware to that when you requalify they will work out the average amount of days worked over that 13 week period and Jobseekers Benefit is only payable when less than that amount of days is worked. e.g. If the average amount of days worked per week is 3, then JB is only payable if 2 days or less are worked in a week