Social welfare issue

friday5

Hi I've currently moved in with my partner I'm on job seekers ,having recently left my job of 3 years and My partner recently applied for illness benefit as he's too ill to work but was refused today. For the past 3 weeks he has been handing in cert to social welfare office and hasn't got paid a penny so I have been supporting him and his son on my €147 . He has a son from a previous relationship. Having contacted social welfare office they told him to contact the community welfare officer and he was told by them that he'd now be put on my claim and wouldn't be backpaid either .My question is can we get separate claims ? In a google search I see I'll get around €100 extra with him on my Claim . Currently the way it was we split bills and shopping . Our electricity Comes in at nearly €700 for 2 months (due to an apartment which we are trying to get out of but can't leave till July) plus €80 on shopping and then there's rent. If we were separate he'd get €191 and I'd get €147 which would allow him to pay the essentials and pay for his son and for maintenance. So currently am i expended to pay for his son when he's here (which is Friday to Sunday or maybe Tuesday, and all holidays) plus maintenance to the child's mother as the €100 get gets barely pay his half of rent shopping and bills .

_Brian

You can’t live together and both get separate full SW claims, not without telling lies.

Your only immediate hope is the local social welfare officer, they may have some chance of cutting a temporary cheque to tide things over.

After that yes by right you will be assessed together.

He may need to revisit whatever agreement there is about maintenance allowances.

I’m curious, you say you left your job, did you do this voluntarily??

splinter65

friday5 wrote: »

Hi I've currently moved in with my partner I'm on job seekers ,having recently left my job of 3 years and My partner recently applied for illness benefit as he's too ill to work but was refused today. For the past 3 weeks he has been handing in cert to social welfare office and hasn't got paid a penny so I have been supporting him and his son on my €147 . He has a son from a previous relationship. Having contacted social welfare office they told him to contact the community welfare officer and he was told by them that he'd now be put on my claim and wouldn't be backpaid either .My question is can we get separate claims ? In a google search I see I'll get around €100 extra with him on my Claim . Currently the way it was we split bills and shopping . Our electricity Comes in at nearly €700 for 2 months (due to an apartment which we are trying to get out of but can't leave till July) plus €80 on shopping and then there's rent. If we were separate he'd get €191 and I'd get €147 which would allow him to pay the essentials and pay for his son and for maintenance. So currently am i expended to pay for his son when he's here (which is Friday to Sunday or maybe Tuesday, and all holidays) plus maintenance to the child's mother as the €100 get gets barely pay his half of rent shopping and bills .

First of all, how old are either of you?

friday5

Thanks for your reply . I left due to the business closing down due to bankruptcy, this was 3 weeks ago and I've not yet found a new job .

friday5

splinter65 wrote: »

First of all, how old are either of you?

I'm 25 and my partner is 26

XsApollo

Just a question that isn’t related to the forum , how is your electric bill 700 euro?

boardsuser1

_Brian wrote: »

You can’t live together and both get separate full SW claims, not without telling lies.

All too common sadly, i'm not saying in the case of the OP.

LincolnHawk

Did they say why he was refused illness benefit? What's wrong with him and have you got medical documents to back it up? Could be worth repursuing

friday5

XsApollo wrote: »

Just a question that isn’t related to the forum , how is your electric bill 700 euro?

We live in a council dwelling . All the tenets in the apartments have the same issue . The council won't send anyone out and we can't move till the summer till my partner is here 2 years as you must live in your first council property for 2 years before moving. We've had higher ones also . We currently got in a pay as you go meter to help keep ontop of it but that's costing €20 every day and a half at the moment

Ghekko

We have a 3 bed house with 5 occupants and our electric bill is max 200 per month. 700 seems very excessive for 3 people. I'd query that for a start.

friday5

LincolnHawk wrote: »

Did they say why he was refused illness benefit? What's wrong with him and have you got medical documents to back it up? Could be worth repursuing

He suffers from a mental health issue and is on strong medication for it . He has a letter from the doctor stating so, he was refused due to not having enough prsi contributions

friday5

Ghekko wrote: »

We have a 3 bed house with 5 occupants and our electric bill is max 200 per month. 700 seems very excessive for 3 people. I'd query that for a start.

Currently were in a council properly . The electricity company was contacted and we paid them and they stated that everything is fine on their end . The council are ignoring the issue as all the occupants in the apartments are in the same boat as us and we can't move until my partner is in this dwelling for 2 years which is due this summer coming

njs030

friday5 wrote: »

He suffers from a mental health issue and is on strong medication for it . He has a letter from the doctor stating so, he was refused due to not having enough prsi contributions

OK so he isn't eligible for illness benefit.
You can't have 2 separate claims while living together that would be fraud but it seems strange you'd get so much less by combining them.

If your partner isn't the primary carer for his child I don't think he can claim for them from sw. I'm open to correction on that though.

splinter65

friday5 wrote: »

I'm 25 and my partner is 26

The maximum payment you can get is €147.50 +€128.
You can ask for that payment to be split between you if you like.
SW will not be interested in any of your outgoings.
Your electricity bill is ridiculous.
You need to ring your supplier, tell them you cannot pay the bill and try and set up a payment plan. You will possibly have to get a pay as you go meter.
You can’t get anything for your partners child because he’s not living with you.
If your boyfriend has a court ordered maintenance then he needs to go back to court, tell them that he’s sick, can’t go to work and can’t pay the maintenance right now.
If it’s not court ordered he should tell the mother of the child he hasn’t it any money right now and will catch up with her when he’s better and working.
I see your in social housing.
If you tell them your current circumstances they will set your rent to the appropriate amount.
How sick is your boyfriend ?
Edited to add:
You say he is ill with mental health issues.
He needs to apply for Disabilty Allowance. His doctor needs to fill in part of the form and you/he needs to write a letter to go with it explaining why he can’t go to work.
You need to apply for Carers Allowance.

NinjaTruncs

Do you have electric heaters in the apartment? 350 a month is huge to be paying on electricity. We are only paying about 70 a month in a 4 bed house. If you don't have storage heaters has the emersion been left on or something? There is definitely something wrong if you're paying that a month.

friday5

NinjaTruncs wrote: »

Do you have electric heaters in the apartment? 350 a month is huge to be paying on electricity. We are only paying about 70 a month in a 4 bed house. If you don't have storage heaters has the emersion been left on or something? There is definitely something wrong if you're paying that a month.

We have storage heating but only turn on the sitting room one for an hour a day and the same with the one in the child's room but only when he's with us. That's still not enough but due to our high costs it's all we can afford to keep them on for

friday5

splinter65 wrote: »

The maximum payment you can get is €147.50 +€128.
You can ask for that payment to be split between you if you like.
SW will not be interested in any of your outgoings.
Your electricity bill is ridiculous.
You need to ring your supplier, tell them you cannot pay the bill and try and set up a payment plan. You will possibly have to get a pay as you go meter.
You can’t get anything for your partners child because he’s not living with you.
If your boyfriend has a court ordered maintenance then he needs to go back to court, tell them that he’s sick, can’t go to work and can’t pay the maintenance right now.
If it’s not court ordered he should tell the mother of the child he hasn’t it any money right now and will catch up with her when he’s better and working.
I see your in social housing.
If you tell them your current circumstances they will set your rent to the appropriate amount.
How sick is your boyfriend ?
Edited to add:
You say he is ill with mental health issues.
He needs to apply for Disabilty Allowance. His doctor needs to fill in part of the form and you/he needs to write a letter to go with it explaining why he can’t go to work.
You need to apply for Carers Allowance.

We got a pay as you go meter recently and it's costing us €20 every day and a half . I never thought of disability allowance , do you know if mental health issues fall under the criteria for disability allowance ?

splinter65

friday5 wrote: »

We got a pay as you go meter recently and it's costing us €20 every day and a half . I never thought of disability allowance , do you know if mental health issues fall under the criteria for disability allowance ?

Something in your flat is eating electricity.
Your boyfriend will get DA if he can produce medical evidence that his issues prevent him from going to work.

friday5

splinter65 wrote: »

Something in your flat is eating electricity.
Your boyfriend will get DA if he can produce medical evidence that his issues prevent him from going to work.

Thanks so much for you help . Something is majorly wrong with it and the council are brushing it off big time and we're stuggling majorly Over the costs , especially coming upto Christmas. the social welfare don't give much of a hand either . I've worked hard for the past 10 years and only past few weeks I've needed social welfare aid and is proving to be a major struggle the sooner i get a job the better but till then I'm expected to supporrt a child and 2 adults and pay bills and what not on less than €250 a week

_Brian

friday5 wrote: »

He suffers from a mental health issue and is on strong medication for it . He has a letter from the doctor stating so, he was refused due to not having enough prsi contributions

It’s not that he was refused so, he’s not entitled to it in the first place.

friday5

_Brian wrote: »

It’s not that he was refused so, he’s not entitled to it in the first place.

Yeah either or he's not getting it

njs030

friday5 wrote: »

We got a pay as you go meter recently and it's costing us €20 every day and a half . I never thought of disability allowance , do you know if mental health issues fall under the criteria for disability allowance ?

The criteria for DA is that the person has a disability or illness which stops them working and will continue to do so for at least a year.
It has a part that needs to be filled in by a doctor and you need quite strong medical evidence to support it.

splinter65

friday5 wrote: »

Thanks so much for you help . Something is majorly wrong with it and the council are brushing it off big time and we're stuggling majorly Over the costs , especially coming upto Christmas. the social welfare don't give much of a hand either . I've worked hard for the past 10 years and only past few weeks I've needed social welfare aid and is proving to be a major struggle the sooner i get a job the better but till then I'm expected to supporrt a child and 2 adults and pay bills and what not on less than €250 a week

If your working since you were 16, how much were you earning per week in 2015?

eurokev

Are you running a grow house or something. I didn't pay €700 for all my electricity last year, in a 3 bed house with 2 people.
You are either lying, up to no good or being stolen from.......

njs030

friday5 wrote: »

Thanks so much for you help . Something is majorly wrong with it and the council are brushing it off big time and we're stuggling majorly Over the costs , especially coming upto Christmas. the social welfare don't give much of a hand either . I've worked hard for the past 10 years and only past few weeks I've needed social welfare aid and is proving to be a major struggle the sooner i get a job the better but till then I'm expected to supporrt a child and 2 adults and pay bills and what not on less than €250 a week

If your partner can't support his child he needs to tell the mother of his child that and change his maintenance agreement.

Secondly if he lives in a council house and isn't working surely his rent must be very low? If not he needs to contact them.

Del2005

You need to figure out what is using all your electricity, no point waiting on the council when you are spending so much.

1st thing to do is turn it off at the main circuit breaker and see if the meter is still spinning. If it is there's something outside your home using it and you can escalate.

If the meter isn't spinning when you turn off at the breaker you need to plug out individual appliances and check the meter to see if it's spinning slower. Start with the fridge and other white goods, plugging each out individually. You'll eventually find what's using so much electricity.

njs030

Del2005 wrote: »

You need to figure out what is using all your electricity, no point waiting on the council when you are spending so much.

1st thing to do is turn it off at the main circuit breaker and see if the meter is still spinning. If it is there's something outside your home using it and you can escalate.

If the meter isn't spinning when you turn off at the breaker you need to plug out individual appliances and check the meter to see if it's spinning slower. Start with the fridge and other white goods, plugging each out individually. You'll eventually find what's using so much electricity.

They have a pay and go meter so they are in arrears.
The €20 every 2 days works out at €15 which is around €7.50 a day.

How much do storage heaters cost if you're using them constantly?

Sesame

If I were you and getting those massive electricity bills, I'd start by turning everything off. Turn off everythung, fridge, heaters, emersion, lights etc. (do this in the day or with a torch) Check your meter and see how fast the numbers are moving in the meter reading.
Then if they are very slow or stopped, start by turning on one thing at a time. If the dial speeds up suddenly, you have found the cause of the issue.
If it never slows down or stops, even with everything turned off, then ask your electricity company to check why that is. It shouldn't be running fast with everything switched off.
Possible reason could be a fault with a fridge or something, or wiring in the flat, or else another property is hooked into your supply.


Regarding you and your husbands claims, I would concentrate on your partners health and support enabling him back to work. I don't know the extent of his problems, but there may be some jobs he could do. Look for casual short contracts if he's looking to avoid long commitment.
Mental health issues can come and go and they get worse, it's been proven, by being out of work. And the longer he is not working, the worse the issues will get.
If you are only 3 weeks out, I guess it shouldn't be that hard for you to jump back into a other job. But you shouldn't need to support all 3 of you on it. Look up family support payments (or whatever they're called, can't remember the name). They are payable to people who are working in addition to your weekly wage.

You are young and only getting started in life. You do need support but you shouldn't have to support these 2 additional people all on your own.

Squatter

friday5 wrote: »

We have storage heating but only turn on the sitting room one for an hour a day and the same with the one in the child's room but only when he's with us.

But that's not how storage heating works - or should work. You won't get much heat from it when you turn it on, you need to charge it up overnight (using the cheap electricity rate) so it will store heat and release it slowly during the daytime. If you can't afford much, then reduce the input.

You need to check the timer clock for your storage heater and confirm that you're only running it during the 23.00 - 08.00 cheap electricity period.

namenotavailablE

Independently of any welfare office meetings, I'd definitely try get to the bottom of the electricity costs- they are completely off the chart so there is almost definitely something wrong with your usage or an appliance. We've a 4 bedroomed house and even at the peak Winter months when there's a lot of energy usage (constant hot water, washing machine, occasional tumble dryer, dishwasher, computers, oven, TV) we wouldn't be getting bills of that amount.

Go through the process outlined above by individually checking appliances to identify the big usage item(s).

friday5

splinter65 wrote: »

If your working since you were 16, how much were you earning per week in 2015?

Not a whole lot . I was in college at the time and working part time 3/4 days a week

friday5

Sesame wrote: »

If I were you and getting those massive electricity bills, I'd start by turning everything off. Turn off everythung, fridge, heaters, emersion, lights etc. (do this in the day or with a torch) Check your meter and see how fast the numbers are moving in the meter reading.
Then if they are very slow or stopped, start by turning on one thing at a time. If the dial speeds up suddenly, you have found the cause of the issue.
If it never slows down or stops, even with everything turned off, then ask your electricity company to check why that is. It shouldn't be running fast with everything switched off.
Possible reason could be a fault with a fridge or something, or wiring in the flat, or else another property is hooked into your supply.


Regarding you and your husbands claims, I would concentrate on your partners health and support enabling him back to work. I don't know the extent of his problems, but there may be some jobs he could do. Look for casual short contracts if he's looking to avoid long commitment.
Mental health issues can come and go and they get worse, it's been proven, by being out of work. And the longer he is not working, the worse the issues will get.
If you are only 3 weeks out, I guess it shouldn't be that hard for you to jump back into a other job. But you shouldn't need to support all 3 of you on it. Look up family support payments (or whatever they're called, can't remember the name). They are payable to people who are working in addition to your weekly wage.

You are young and only getting started in life. You do need support but you shouldn't have to support these 2 additional people all on your own.

Thank you so much for your help and fantastic advice I really appreciate it and we will look into everything you've advised . Hadn't thought of these things myself . Thanks again

Purple Mountain

Just to add here..

As far as I know..but please check..DA is awarded amongst other things that you can show his illness has or will last for a year at least.
If this is not the case it'll be supplementary welfare

He needs to revise the maintenance situation ASAP.
It's very noble of him providing for his child and rightly so but not if ye are going hungry.

njs030

friday5 wrote: »

Thank you so much for your help and fantastic advice I really appreciate it and we will look into everything you've advised . Hadn't thought of these things myself . Thanks again

Family income supplement is for people who have children living with them so I doubt you could apply for that unfortunately.
The primary carer usually applies for those kind of things.

Gatling

Something isn't making sense here

Grab All Association

Normally a person that doesn't qualify for illness benefit could claim SWA. He'd still have to fill out a MC1 and produce MC2 certs to the CWO every week. It would be paid to him at €191 per week. I'm not sure if this is at the discretion of the CWO but I know someone who was getting SWA by cheque whilst waiting for DA.

njs030

Grab All Association wrote: »

Normally a person that doesn't qualify for illness benefit could claim SWA. He'd still have to fill out a MC1 and produce MC2 certs to the CWO every week. It would be paid to him at €191 per week. I'm not sure if this is at the discretion of the CWO but I know someone who was getting SWA by cheque whilst waiting for DA.

You have to have applied for something to get swa and it seems he hasn't applied for anything since being turned down for illness benefit which he wasn't entitled to anyway.

Grab All Association

notjustsweet wrote: »

You have to have applied for something to get swa and it seems he hasn't applied for anything since being turned down for illness benefit which he wasn't entitled to anyway.

I was literally just coming back to post that after reading it on the Citizens Information website. According to the OP it sounds like he may qualify for DA. So all he's to do is apply for it and he'll most likely get SWA whilst waiting.

friday5

Squatter wrote: »

But that's not how storage heating works - or should work. You won't get much heat from it when you turn it on, you need to charge it up overnight (using the cheap electricity rate) so it will store heat and release it slowly during the daytime. If you can't afford much, then reduce the input.

You need to check the timer clock for your storage heater and confirm that you're only running it during the 23.00 - 08.00 cheap electricity period.

Sorry for the poor image , it's off google but it's the same as mine . Mines electric storage heater . There is only an on and off switch and a timer . There's no switches for input and output or anything like that

Squatter

friday5 wrote: »

Sorry for the poor image , it's off google but it's the same as mine . Mines electric storage heater . There is only an on and off switch and a timer . There's no switches for input and output or anything like that

Thanks. But there should be two controls on the storage heater itself.

One control determines how much heat the heater stores during the 'input' period that should run from 11.00 pm to 8.00 am (when cheap night rate electricity is available), the other determines the rate of heat release from the heater (some people want the heat to come out during the daytime, others want to store it until evening when they get home from work.)

If you're only turning it on for an hour a day, then you're getting very little benefit from it. Also you're probably using expensive daytime rate electricity.

Ask someone for advice or see here:- https://www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and-support/night-storage-heaters (note that the times in that article are for the UK - in Ireland, cheap rate electricity comes on at 11.00 and runs until 8.00 am.)

NATLOR

Squatter wrote: »

Thanks. But there should be two controls on the storage heater itself.

One control determines how much heat the heater stores during the 'input' period that should run from 11.00 pm to 8.00 am (when cheap night rate electricity is available), the other determines the rate of heat release from the heater (some people want the heat to come out during the daytime, others want to store it until evening when they get home from work.)

If you're only turning it on for an hour a day, then you're getting very little benefit from it. Also you're probably using expensive daytime rate electricity.

Ask someone for advice or see here:- https://www.cse.org.uk/advice/advice-and-support/night-storage-heaters (note that the times in that article are for the UK - in Ireland, cheap rate electricity comes on at 11.00 and runs until 8.00 am.)

Some storage heaters also have an instant heat option which works just the same as a normal electric heater I reckon thats what the OP is using during the day

Sienna5050

I used to live in a house with storage heating ,my bills were beyond ridicoulas roughly 1000 euro for 2 months in peak winter,and 350 when hardly used at all,,accepted this for yrs as thought it was my excessive use,were using them as supposed to as was shown correct use,after i moved i started using oil filled radiators,was astounded by the difference,.
I would use anything other than storage heating. id invest in a few good quality oil filled heaters and forget the storage heaters.Just my personal experience and opinion.

yabadabado

notjustsweet wrote: »

You have to have applied for something to get swa and it seems he hasn't applied for anything since being turned down for illness benefit which he wasn't entitled to anyway.

If you don't get IB because of lack of contributions you can still keep sending in certs and CWO will give you supplementary allowance.