Jobseekers after returning from travelling

hoosh1 · 23-10-2016 9:25am #1

Hey,
My girlfriend and I are planning on going traveling for 8 months in 2017. Both of us have been working full time for last 4-5 years. We will be leaving our jobs as can't get career breaks. We are wondering will we be allowed to get jobseekers benefit/allowance when we get back while we are looking for new jobs?

Tzardine · 23-10-2016 9:30am

Yes you would be entitled to it.

But IMO you should not get it. If you can afford to quit your job and fund 8 months travel I think you should put something aside to support yourself when you get back.

Billy86 · 23-10-2016 9:35am

Tzardine wrote: »

Yes you would be entitled to it.

But IMO you should not get it. If you can afford to quit your job and fund 8 months travel I think you should put something aside to support yourself when you get back.

If they've been paying their taxes into the system while working here, they're rightfully entitled to get back from it.

OP, you'll be grand - if it were longer than 2-3 years I think you would need to do some kind of residency form, but otherwise there's no issue. I did the same when I got back from abroad this day last month; thankfully got myself a job within two weeks of returning though so only had to claim the once.

Muff Richardson · 23-10-2016 9:36am

Tzardine wrote: »

Yes you would be entitled to it.

But IMO you should not get it. If you can afford to quit your job and fund 8 months travel I think you should put something aside to support yourself when you get back.

if he has paid his tax, usc, prsi and has saved money to travel and intends to return to work and is looking for some kind of state support whilst looking for the work he is fully entitled to it and has all my respect for doing so. not to mention his job seekers benefit is taxable and he will pay for it when he returns to work and has an income.

Tzardine · 23-10-2016 9:42am

There is no doubt that he is "entitled" to it. I said so in my post.

However, using Jobseekers as a support means to quit your job and go travelling for 8 months is not what it was designed for.

tinpib · 23-10-2016 9:47am

Yes you will be entitled to it as that is the system we have. What months of the year are you planning to travel?

When people travel for a year they often leave in early January and come back at Christmas. This is expensive as usually flights are more expensive at these times, though that might be changing.

But a very important thing to remember is the tax year, which is a calendar year in Ireland. It makes most sense, to me anyway, to maximise the benefit for yourself.

If you travel from September 2017 to May 2018 you will probably get back all the tax you pay in 2017 and you will pay less tax, probably no tax at all, once you start working later in 2018. That's the system for everyone, you are doing nothing wrong.

This will be a few thousand euro for both of you. Probably the only/biggest negative is being away from home for Christmas, but you will live!

Billy86 · 23-10-2016 10:04am

Tzardine wrote: »

There is no doubt that he is "entitled" to it. I said so in my post.

However, using Jobseekers as a support means to quit your job and go travelling for 8 months is not what it was designed for.

That's a bit of a misrepresentation of what they are using it for, to be honest - you make it sound as if they are looking to claim while away.

Tzardine · 23-10-2016 10:06am

Billy86 wrote: »

That's a bit of a misrepresentation of what they are using it for, to be honest - you make it sound as if they are looking to claim while away.

Not necessarily. Would their decision to quit their jobs for 8 months and go travelling be affected if they knew there would be no jobseekers allowance for them on return to Ireland ?

If so, then the jobseekers is enabling them to quit work and go travelling. As I said, this is not what it is designed for.

cee_jay · 23-10-2016 10:08am

Mod: Tzardine this is not a forum for you to judge if someone should be claiming Jobseekers or not. Please read forum charter.

Tzardine · 23-10-2016 10:11am

cee_jay wrote: »

Mod: Tzardine this is not a forum for you to judge if someone should be claiming Jobseekers or not. Please read forum charter.

I was not judging. I fully accept that the system allows the OP to do this and I would not hold it against them. Its the systems fault.

I just said that in my opinion I do not think it should be allowed.

cee_jay · 23-10-2016 10:18am

Mod: Your opinion is not assisting the OP in anyway. Please do not post on this thread again.

hoosh1 · 23-10-2016 8:56pm

Hi all,

Wow this post really took off. Thanks to everyone that replied, including the negative posts, everyone is entitled to their opinion. Being eligible for jobseekers in no way affects our decision to travel, we were just doing the sums this morning and wanted to know what our situation would be like when we get back.

Thanks Billy and Muff for the support.
Tinpib thats interesting about the tax year we hadn't even considered it. I think we're pretty much set on going from February to October 2017. If we went in December of this year would that tax rule apply?

tinpib · 23-10-2016 9:58pm

hoosh1 wrote: »

Tinpib thats interesting about the tax year we hadn't even considered it. I think we're pretty much set on going from February to October 2017. If we went in December of this year would that tax rule apply?

A lot of people don't think of this!

Unfortunately by leaving in December it won't have much benefit for you. Ideally you need to divide the length of your trip in 2.

So leave 4 months before the end of the year, i.e. September 1st and come back at the end of April

For easy calcs let's say you earn 60k a year, 5k a month gross.

Going by a tax calc here http://taxcalc.ie/ you pay 13940 tax a year, so 1162 a month.

The tax is divided out equally perm onth as you are assumed to work for 12 months. But let's say you leave Ireland on September 1st you will have paid 8 X 1162 = 9293.

But you will only have earned 5k X 8 = 40k.

So redo the tax calc for 40k, you should only pay 5940 tax for the year, therefore you are due a refund of 9293 - 5940 = 3353.

It's a sizeable amount of money!

Redo it for the following year too.

Another 3353 at the same figures.

edit: that's back fo the beermat calcs but you get the idea.

hoosh1 · 25-10-2016 7:02pm

Unfortunately I don't think it will make much difference to us but thanks very much for the advice.

Right2Write · 25-10-2016 7:23pm

The OP and his partner are proposing to come back to Ireland, work here again and support the state. They're perfectly entitled to use the system like this and have earned the use of it. I'd have far more time for people like this than those who choose to simply milk the system without contributing or even those who avail of expensive education here and then take themselves off where they might get paid a few $ more.

hoosh1 · 20-06-2018 7:42am

Hi all,

As the OP of this thread I thought I better give you all an update. We had a great trip and arrived back at the end of October 17. I ended up going back to my old job with only a week off work so didn't go down the jobseekers route. My girlfriend got a job after around a month so was only claiming for a short time. She had absolutely no problem applying for jobseekers and it was all processed very quickly. Hope this helps anyone else it might be relevant to.

Also as an added bonus I got around 3k back in tax. I basically got all the tax back that I paid in 2017 as far as I can see. This was also very easy to do just using my P60 and the revenue online service which is excellent.

Cheers.

Jobseekers after returning from travelling

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