Back to education allowance

griffonmark

I'm looking for some help because I'm getting conflicting views from my local Social Welfare office: I am currently receiving a BTEA for a FETAC Lev 5 course I started back in September and intend to continue to the next Level 6 part of the same course next year. However after asking at SW office one person is saying I will continue to receive my allowance during the summer months but somebody else says I have to sign on and collect Jobseekers at the post office each week from when the course ends (in May 22) until the start of the new course in September. I intend working voluntarily (no payment whatsoever) during the summer months in an area directly linked to what I'm studying and hoped I could continue to receive the allowance in my bank account for the summer. Does anybody know which is correct? The second person also says I have to reapply for what he called "your dole" again when the course ends. It took ages for SW (yes it did backdate the payment) to grant me the allowance after a fair grilling at my home where the two officers wanted to see bank statements going back a number of years - even tho it only required 6 months according to the application form. I had hoped I wouldn't have to go through it all again. After working non-stop for 32 years since I was a teenager (till my job became redundant as a result of technology and some over-enthusiastic accountants who couldn't see the wood for the trees) I understand Social Welfare have to be thorough with the state finances but they seem, in this instance, to be making things up as they go along. Can anybody with knowledge of this help clear it up?

Gatling

You sign off till you being the new course year in September,
It's usually fairly straight forward to switch over to jobseekers again,
Also you would need to clear with the department if your actually allowed to volunteer while getting jsa

hdowney

All BTEA recipients have to transfer back onto JSA for the summer months unless they are doing a placement as part of the course and can produce evidence of this.

However I'd be careful if I were you. This unpaid work you wish to take up - which doesn't sound like a compulsory part of your course - could exempt you from receiving JSA for the summer months as you wouldn't be available and searching for work, which is a requirement of JSA

myshirt

+1 on the above op

You have to go on Jobseekers for the summer, and normal terms apply.
The key questions here, and someone might be able to help you (either here, or over in the Student Finance forum if you get the lazy one liner links to Citizens Info you can sometimes find here)

• Will the voluntary work preclude you from Jobseekers? (Possibly yes, but someone else might answer here)
• Will work during the summer affect the rate you 're-enter' the scheme at in September, or is the rate you got at commencement the rate which is 'locked in'? After all, this is not a means tested payment. The difficulty though is that it is a non-statutory scheme, so as is the case in the Public Service generally, you have some very, very poor performers they can't get rid of (and even give raises and pensions to!!), so you may get the sh!tty end of the stick depending on where you are in the country. Some will re-assess you, as the payment is underpinned by jobseekers or another means-tested payment. Others will not re-assess you, as the payment is not means tested.

If I can be of any other help, do post again. Good on you for the voluntary work, always great on the CV and not something you would see from the person reviewing your claim unfortunatley. If they finish at 5, they finish at 5, no matter how many forms left to process. It is called 'no overtime available'. In the private sector, it's called work.