Possibly giving up work to carer for child

jimmers23

Hi all, my child with special needs has been granted the domicillary care and incapacitated child tax credit. We are Having serious child minding issues at the moment so I am contemplating taking carers leave from my teaching job to care for my child.
My husband earns approx 520 euro per week after tax. If I were to take leave from work I would hope to receive the carers allowance for the 104 weeks. I acknowledge that this is means tested. How much would I be likely to receive each week on carers allowance taking the means test into account? I'm just trying to figure out if this would be financially viable.
Many thanks for any responses

Millem

jimmers23 wrote: »

Hi all, my child with special needs has been granted the domicillary care and incapacitated child tax credit. We are Having serious child minding issues at the moment so I am contemplating taking carers leave from my teaching job to care for my child.
My husband earns approx 520 euro per week after tax. If I were to take leave from work I would hope to receive the carers allowance for the 104 weeks. I acknowledge that this is means tested. How much would I be likely to receive each week on carers allowance taking the means test into account? I'm just trying to figure out if this would be financially viable.
Many thanks for any responses

Would it not be carer’s benefit that you would apply for? It is based on your prsi contributions. You can work for up to 15 hours per week but not earn more than €332 net.
I think it is purely based on you and not your husband’s wages.

hairyslug

I was on slightly more than your husband when we applied. My wife got full rate carers allowance for both our kids.

splinter65

jimmers23 wrote: »

Hi all, my child with special needs has been granted the domicillary care and incapacitated child tax credit. We are Having serious child minding issues at the moment so I am contemplating taking carers leave from my teaching job to care for my child.
My husband earns approx 520 euro per week after tax. If I were to take leave from work I would hope to receive the carers allowance for the 104 weeks. I acknowledge that this is means tested. How much would I be likely to receive each week on carers allowance taking the means test into account? I'm just trying to figure out if this would be financially viable.
Many thanks for any responses

As another poster has pointed out you need to apply for Carers Benefit in order to keep your job open through Carers Leave and it’s not means tested its based on PRSI. You can work 15 hours per week too.
Please know that it’s currently taking 3 months to process but it will be backdated when you do get it.
If your going to be out of work for a while lease go to revenue and allocate all your tax credits to your husband. Save you another bit of money.
Has to be some plus to marriage ?!?

splinter65

hairyslug wrote: »

I was on slightly more than your husband when we applied. My wife got full rate carers allowance for both our kids.

If your wife got Carers Benefit instead of Carers Allowance then your wages never came into play.

jimmers23

Thanks so much for the replies everyone. Its early days but might be doable if we got full rate. It would be great to be able to possibly work a day or two subbing to get me out of the house too.thanks so much

splinter65

jimmers23 wrote: »

Thanks so much for the replies everyone. Its early days but might be doable if we got full rate. It would be great to be able to possibly work a day or two subbing to get me out of the house too.thanks so much

Once again, with Carers Benefit there is only one rate and that’s €215.

jimmers23

Thank you

Millem

jimmers23 wrote: »

Thank you

Jimmers I don’t know what contract you have but if your child has additional needs you will be allowed to take your parental leave in single days etc....otherwise it’s 7 day blocks.
You could take parental leave to get you up the summer. Come off it for Easter and summer.

I find the leave department in the department of education fantastic. They could run through some options for you.

You could suss out job share for September or go for the carer’s leave.

jimmers23

Thank you for your reply. I have a cid. Ideally I'll try get through this year with the help of family for childcare. I'd like to see my exam classes through if possible. I'd be looking at carers leave for the new academic year. I will ring the leave dept next week and talk it through

jimmers23

Oh dear, I see you need to be working 16 hrs per week at the minute to be eligible for carer's benefit. My hours timetabled at work account for 15.30 hrs. I sometimes get an extra hour or two some weeks but not every week.. Are they very strict on this? I wonder would 45 minutes lunchtime supervision bump me up. ( this is unpaid but part of contract)

Millem

jimmers23 wrote: »

Oh dear, I see you need to be working 16 hrs per week at the minute to be eligible for carer's benefit. My hours timetabled at work account for 15.30 hrs. I sometimes get an extra hour or two some weeks but not every week.. Are they very strict on this? I wonder would 45 minutes lunchtime supervision bump me up. ( this is unpaid but part of contract)

What about the JC planning period? Or is the 15 hours 30 mins including the jc planning time?

jimmers23

Millem, you are a star. You have been a big help. I'll ring the leave Dept tomorrow and find out for definite. Thank you so much

jimmers23

Just to update, once I have worked over the 16 hours in the past 6 Mondays for any 8 weeks I will qualify. Thanks so much to all who helped with my query.

jimmers23

6 months not mondays

jules86

Apply for both allowance and benefit. You will possibly be entitled to more money on carers allowance as you will get an increase for each child (half rate currently€15.90 but going up in budget) as your husband earns over 400 you won't get this on carers benefit. You will need to apply for benefit for the carers leave, if you wish to keep your job open

jimmers23

I'm hoping to work one day each week doing a bit of subbing. This would not be guaranteed, also would love to keep my job open. My understanding is with carers allowance the money would vary with any income I make.would carers benefit suit me best?? I could earn up to 332euro/ 15 hrs a week on top of the fixed carers benefit amount.

jules86

It would be worth applying for both. They won't award the allowance if you are financially better off on benefit. Impossible to say which would be best for you until then. You would also get free travel with allowance if that is something you would use you may want to factor that into your decision too. Gp visit card can be got with either, apply to hse separately

jules86

Double post

jimmers23

Jules, thank you so much. I'll do just that. Thank you again