Jobseekers for married foreigner (now a resident)

Kiith

Trying to find some info on if my wife would be entitled to claim jobseekers benefits while looking for work again.

She came here as a student 5 years ago, so she wouldn't have paid much (any?) tax in Ireland before. She was gone for a year (most of 2016) to take care of her terminally ill mother, and has been back in Ireland for the last year (14 months). She didn't work during that period (personal reasons), but is going to start looking again now.

Can she claim jobseekers, given that she is a resident now? Or is it solely based on your previous PRSI contributions? Or can her benefits be taken off my credits, similar to how our Med1 application works?

Peregrinus

You're in the wrong forum. This isn't a tax issue; you want to try the State Benefits forum.

Jobseekers benefit (and, in general, any payment with the word "benefit" in the name) is an insured benefit; you qualify for it by having paid the relevant social insurance contributions. Contributions paid by your spouse do not count for this purpose, so your wife's situation doesn't look immediately promising. Depending on where she lived outside Ireland, and whether she worked and paid social insurance there, and whether there are mutual social security agreements between Ireland and that country, there might be some possibility and it's worth exploring, but I wouldn't be wildly optimistic.

Jobseekers allowance is not contributions-based, but it is means-tested.

Kiith

Cheers Peregrinus, i've asked to get the thread moved to the State Benefits forum now.

She's American, so i'd assume there isn't any agreement in place with them. Worker benefits aren't exactly top of their agenda.