Illness benefit and supplementary welfare allowance?

Bemma

As i've been cut off jobseekers benefit due to the amount of stamps i have, the CWO told me she would give me supplementary welfare allowance until my Disability Allowance comes through (it is allowed or disallowed) then she made a home visit tuesday to check my address and said yes i will give you €100 a week until your disability is approved but you must also go to the doctor and get weekly forms for illness benefit. Now i'm confused- ive applied for 2 allowances now, illness benefit and supplementary welfare allowance. It should be one or the other. Does anyone else have experience with this??

Cushie Butterfield

Going by the information you've provided it looks as if the situation is this:

You applied for Disability Allowance when you were in receipt of Jobseeker's Benefit. You should have been claiming Illness Benefit instead of Jobseeker's Benefit. It would be unusual to go straight from a jobseeker's payment to Disability Allowance. The DSP Rep (CWO) can only give you Supplementary Welfare Allowance if you have applied for & are wating for any other DSP payment that you may be entitled to. SWA can then be paid even if your application for IB is refused. Apply for Illness Benefit even though you may not be eligible at this stage, but you'll still have to submit weekly certs to satisy DSP that you are not fit for work plus you may also be entitled to credited contributions to preserve your PRSI record despite the fact that you wouldn't actually be getting an IB payment.

So just do as the DSP Rep advised & apply for Illness Benefit & submit weekly certs. There's no danger of getting two separate payments. The DSP Rep will be able to see on their system that you've applied for IB & whether or not you've been refused, so will continue to pay you SWA for as long as you're not getting paid any other form of payment.