Maternity Benefit

tart29016

Hi,

My wife is due on the 14th June 2017 and she is also doing a bit of causal work at the moment. The work is one day a week and pays the minimum wage. There is a chance that her casual work may be lost as the business is not running well.

Our question is if she loses her casual work tomorrow will she still be able to claim for the maternity benefit?

She has the required PRSI contributions paid in 2015 so really just the timing of her current employment.

I read on welfare.ie that:

Maternity Benefit is paid by the Department of Social Protection to women who have a certain number of paid PRSI contributions on their social insurance record and who are in insurable employment up to the first day of their maternity leave.

The above would suggest that if she is not in insurable employment when she foes on maternity leave then she might not qualify for Maternity Benefit?

van_beano

tart29016 wrote: »

Hi,

My wife is due on the 14th June 2017 and she is also doing a bit of causal work at the moment. The work is one day a week and pays the minimum wage. There is a chance that her casual work may be lost as the business is not running well.

Our question is if she loses her casual work tomorrow will she still be able to claim for the maternity benefit?

She has the required PRSI contributions paid in 2015 so really just the timing of her current employment.

I read on welfare.ie that:

Maternity Benefit is paid by the Department of Social Protection to women who have a certain number of paid PRSI contributions on their social insurance record and who are in insurable employment up to the first day of their maternity leave.

The above would suggest that if she is not in insurable employment when she foes on maternity leave then she might not qualify for Maternity Benefit?

I can't give a definite answer to your question but if your wife is made redundant by her job then she will be claiming her PRSI contributions back for a year through Jobseekers Allowance of Benefit (don't know which), after which any payments will be means tested. As by the looks of the timing of this, the year long JSA or JSB will encapsulate the 6 months maternity benefit she would have gotten. Think the payments are in or around the same nowadays anyways.

I am open to correction on everything I've just said!

catrionanic

I think it all depends on how much she's put in in the relevant tax year. So if she made enough contributions in 2015, she'll be covered. Was she employed full time that year? Because if she was only working one day a week, she may not have made enough contributions.

I am now self-employed, but was employed full-time in 2015 and made enough contributions to qualify.

tart29016

She has paid enough contributions in 2015. I think she has about 46 weeks of class A contributions paid in 2015.

So really the worry is does she need to be in employment the day before she takes maternity leave? for instance, she would be 16 weeks pregnant next week, and lets say she loses her job that week, then is she entitled to the maternity benefit?

catrionanic

Honestly I think you'd be best to contact the maternity benefit people up in Donegal about that.

My own experience is that I'm now self-employed and was still covered. So hopefully!

Beanybabog

It says online "All employees must have their leave certified by their employer. However, if your contract of employment ends within 16 weeks of the end of the week in which your baby is due and you satisfy the social insurance (PRSI) conditions, Maternity Benefit is payable from the day after the date on your P45."

So I assume if she's employed at week 24 she'll be ok? I'd call and check

tart29016

Thank you all for the advice,

I've called them twice just to see if I can get the same answer. But the first said she has to work until after 24 weeks and second person said it would be ok as she has paid enough PRSI contributions in 2015.

So we are really confused and not sure what should we do.

The thing is she still has the job but the boss is of the opinion that the business won's last after January 2017.

Moonbeam

The rules have changed slightly I think .
You used to have to be in employment for a certain time before leave as well as stamps paid .
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/social_welfare_payments_to_families_and_children/maternity_benefit.html