Losing job in 2 weeks

LETHAL LADY

Hello just looking for any information for my sister who is losing her job in 2 weeks. She has been working for the same business for the past 5 years. Earlier this year she was put on 3 day week and then recently got taken back full time only to be told she is being left go in 2 weeks.
She rent a house for about 300 a month with 2 others.

Can anyone tell me her entitlements and if she is out of work for more than a month can she claim all tax back paid for that year.

Be grateful for any help.

Celvapan

LETHAL LADY wrote: »

Hello just looking for any information for my sister who is losing her job in 2 weeks. She has been working for the same business for the past 5 years. Earlier this year she was put on 3 day week and then recently got taken back full time only to be told she is being left go in 2 weeks.
She rent a house for about 300 a month with 2 others.

Can anyone tell me her entitlements and if she is out of work for more than a month can she claim all tax back paid for that year.

Be grateful for any help.

Hi Lethal lady, sorry to hear your sister is loosing her job in 2 weeks.

She should be entitled to Jobseekers Benefit since she has been working for 5 years so tell her to get the form filled in and get down to the local social welfare office http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Pages/jajbapplications.aspx . There are 3 "waiting days" from the date you get the form stamped for which she will not get paid.

She may also qualify for rent allowance and her local community welfare officer should be able to advise her on this. They are usually based in your local health clinic and have designated office hours every week. If she drops in there, she should be able to find out when the office hours are.

Depending on where she is living, there is a rent allowance limit in each county/city. Limits may be found here:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/social-welfare/social-welfare-payments/supplementary-welfare-schemes/rent_supplement

There are a number of stipulations in relation to qualifying for RA and they may also be found at the above link. If her rent is within the limit set for your area, and she meets these stipulations, she should qualify for RA.

She must also put her name on the social housing list with her local authority as she will need to be assessed for housing need. Just to give you the heads up, I was not told of this when I first went to the local community welfare officer, and have been waiting for the past month to be assessed for my housing need. I was made redundant in July this year and have been struggling to pay my rent and live on my weekly JB of €196, which is not easy. There is a 2 month waiting list to be assessed where I live so I have another month to wait yet. I was originally told that because I had been renting for longer than 6 months I should meet the requirements for RA, and that there was "no hurry" for my to put my name on the Social housing list as I had just been made redundant. I wasn't told that this was necessary to qualify for rent allowance. I was also told that RA is not backdated...

In relation to tax, she can apply for a tax refund after 4 weeks of being unemployed by filling in a P50 form and submitting this with her P45. Details may be found here http://www.revenue.ie/en/personal/tax-refunds.html#section1

She will not get a full tax refund for the year. I got €500 back. That's nowhere near what I had paid in tax.

She will also qualify for a medical card. I applied for this online and had the card within a week of posting. See here www.medicalcard.ie
I was at the optician last week and got €42 towards my glasses with the medical card.

Hope this helps

Sir Oxman

Celvapan wrote: »

Hi Lethal lady, sorry to hear your sister is loosing her job in 2 weeks.

She should be entitled to Jobseekers Benefit since she has been working for 5 years so tell her to get the form filled in and get down to the local social welfare office http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Pages/jajbapplications.aspx . There are 3 "waiting days" from the date you get the form stamped for which she will not get paid.

She may also qualify for rent allowance and her local community welfare officer should be able to advise her on this. They are usually based in your local health clinic and have designated office hours every week. If she drops in there, she should be able to find out when the office hours are.

Depending on where she is living, there is a rent allowance limit in each county/city. Limits may be found here:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/categories/social-welfare/social-welfare-payments/supplementary-welfare-schemes/rent_supplement

There are a number of stipulations in relation to qualifying for RA and they may also be found at the above link. If her rent is within the limit set for your area, and she meets these stipulations, she should qualify for RA.

She must also put her name on the social housing list with her local authority as she will need to be assessed for housing need. Just to give you the heads up, I was not told of this when I first went to the local community welfare officer, and have been waiting for the past month to be assessed for my housing need. I was made redundant in July this year and have been struggling to pay my rent and live on my weekly JB of €196, which is not easy. There is a 2 month waiting list to be assessed where I live so I have another month to wait yet. I was originally told that because I had been renting for longer than 6 months I should meet the requirements for RA, and that there was "no hurry" for my to put my name on the Social housing list as I had just been made redundant. I wasn't told that this was necessary to qualify for rent allowance. I was also told that RA is not backdated...

In relation to tax, she can apply for a tax refund after 4 weeks of being unemployed by filling in a P50 form and submitting this with her P45. Details may be found here http://www.revenue.ie/en/personal/tax-refunds.html#section1

She will not get a full tax refund for the year. I got €500 back. That's nowhere near what I had paid in tax.

She will also qualify for a medical card. I applied for this online and had the card within a week of posting. See here www.medicalcard.ie
I was at the optician last week and got €42 towards my glasses with the medical card.

Hope this helps

It appears CWOs in different areas have their own rules which I find really annoying.

I did not have to be assessed for housing or get on a housing list to qualify for RA - the 'rent for over 6mths' rule was enough as is stated in all the online guides which all say 6mths renting OR be on a social housing needs list.

It is very frustrating alright.

Celvapan

gambiaman wrote: »

It appears CWOs in different areas have their own rules which I find really annoying.

I did not have to be assessed for housing or get on a housing list to qualify for RA - the 'rent for over 6mths' rule was enough as is stated in all the online guides which all say 6mths renting OR be on a social housing needs list.

It is very frustrating alright.

Funny you should say that gambiaman, I saw two different SWO in my local health centre - the first guy said that the 6months renting accomodation would be sufficient for applying for RA while the stand in lady (the main guy was on holidays) the next month said that I had to be assessed by the council first. I have also read conflicting information to what she said online, just as you have mentioned above.

I had to move out of my previous rented accomodation as it was over the limit set for my area, and I moved in to a cheaper place. This was the reason she gave for me having to apply to the council first. I am now totally confused again, I think i'll have to make a trip to the SWO again.

This lack of information, or incorrect information from people who are being paid to know it is really unacceptable.

Just out of curiousity, how long did you have to wait for your RA to come through, once you had applied for it? Thanks gambiaman.

LETHAL LADY

Thanks for your help also forgot to mention she is only gettiing statutory redundancy from her employer. Will this delay or be taken into account against any social welfare claims.

Sir Oxman

Celvapan wrote: »

Funny you should say that gambiaman, I saw two different SWO in my local health centre - the first guy said that the 6months renting accomodation would be sufficient for applying for RA while the stand in lady (the main guy was on holidays) the next month said that I had to be assessed by the council first. I have also read conflicting information to what she said online, just as you have mentioned above.

I had to move out of my previous rented accomodation as it was over the limit set for my area, and I moved in to a cheaper place. This was the reason she gave for me having to apply to the council first. I am now totally confused again, I think i'll have to make a trip to the SWO again.

This lack of information, or incorrect information from people who are being paid to know it is really unacceptable.

Just out of curiousity, how long did you have to wait for your RA to come through, once you had applied for it? Thanks gambiaman.

Hi Celvapan,
It does seem as if CWOs are a law unto themselves - I understand they have to have some leeway within guidelines to make their decisions but it simply states online on Govt websites that the 6mths or housing list is part of qualifying, not 6mths and housing list.
I'm not saying get in an argument with the CWO over it cos that wouldn't be wise considering they can and do make their own criteria.
I agree though, it is very disheartening to be told one thing then next timen the goalposts are moved.

I was made redundant in April this year and had to move, like you as I could not afford the big rent I was paying.
I moved area and applied to the local CWO (just recently) - from initial application to approval was about 12-14 days and it said in the approval letter that it was backdated to application date - she paid her inspection visit within two days and in total I had two meetings with her.
And this was in Dublin Inner City where her clinic was very, very busy.

Best of luck

rmj

hi, am in the same boat, losing my job for the second time in 2 years, signing on and all that goes with it is a pain in the hole !!!!
Is there anyone else out there just right pissed off, i have a great family and personal stuff is great but work is a prick, jumped from job to job when things were good, then laid off, out of work,started new job in dec'09, laid off after 11 mths!!! have been thrown out out on the scrapheap after working my socks off for a certain "apprentice" seeker !!! Apologies for the rant but everyone tells you that you will be grand, truth is you wont, I know you gotta keep positive, difficult some-times !!!

Sir Oxman

LETHAL LADY wrote: »

Thanks for your help also forgot to mention she is only gettiing statutory redundancy from her employer. Will this delay or be taken into account against any social welfare claims.

Hi Lethal,

Paperwise, get everything ready and primed and make sure everything is in order as one thing wrong and your sister will have to start the whole process again more than likely.

I did declare my redundancy payment and as you have to show bank statements the amount will show as you can read above this did not delay my application

They have complicated formulae to take into account what you have in your bank account etc (ie, your means)

AFAIK, they also take into account your outgoings.

As I said, make sure your sister has everything with her - teh CWO will photocopy everything he/she needs, make sure she hands back your sisters originals


She can claim her tax back, I'm sure I was told to wait 8 weeks after I was made redundant but check that out for yourself- I've had one payment so far and was sent another form to claim 8 weeks after the first payment ( I don't know if I am due a second payment but more than likely I will be)

Best of luck

Balagan

If the redundancy payment is less than Euro 50,000 there is no disqualification period before applying for JSB.

http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Pages/jajbfaq.aspx#q3

fat__tony

Wait a minute, I thought figures on the live register dramatically fell this month??

Haven't we turned the corner recently?

How can this be?

cee_jay

fat__tony wrote: »

Wait a minute, I thought figures on the live register dramatically fell this month??

Haven't we turned the corner recently?

How can this be?

People lose their jobs - even during the Celtic Tiger people lost jobs.
Just because live register fell this month does not mean it will fall again next month.

Please keep posts on topic.

fat__tony

cAr0l wrote: »

People lose their jobs - even during the Celtic Tiger people lost jobs.
Just because live register fell this month does not mean it will fall again next month.

Please keep posts on topic.

It was just an attempt at irony to be honest.

Celvapan

gambiaman wrote: »

Hi Celvapan,
It does seem as if CWOs are a law unto themselves - I understand they have to have some leeway within guidelines to make their decisions but it simply states online on Govt websites that the 6mths or housing list is part of qualifying, not 6mths and housing list.
I'm not saying get in an argument with the CWO over it cos that wouldn't be wise considering they can and do make their own criteria.
I agree though, it is very disheartening to be told one thing then next timen the goalposts are moved.

I was made redundant in April this year and had to move, like you as I could not afford the big rent I was paying.
I moved area and applied to the local CWO (just recently) - from initial application to approval was about 12-14 days and it said in the approval letter that it was backdated to application date - she paid her inspection visit within two days and in total I had two meetings with her.
And this was in Dublin Inner City where her clinic was very, very busy.

Best of luck

Hi gambiaman,

Just thought i'd update my progress with the CWO...I paid her a visit again this week and she is sticking to her guns that I have to be on the council list and have to have rented for 6 out of the past 12 months...

I showed her the information I had printed off from the citizens advice web page that stated clearly EITHER assesed by the council OR having rented for 6 out of the past 12 months. She told me that this information is incorrect and that the rules have been changed and they obviously have not updated their information to reflect the change.

So I went home, rang the HSE information line and they told me that I EITHER have to be assesed by the council OR have rented for 6 out of the past 12 months to qualify...I also downloaded their Rent Supplement document produced by the HSE and part 4, page 3 clearly states

4. Housing Need

You will be excluded from receipt of Rent Supplement

UNLESS

• The Housing Authority for the area in which you intend to reside has

determined that you are eligible for and in need of social housing.

OR

• You have been living in private rented accommodation for a period of 183
days within the preceding 12 months at the date of application and you
were in a position to pay the rent at the commencement of the tenancy.
Time spent living in accommodation for homeless persons or in an
institution can also be taken into account.

So according to my CWO, EVERYONE (no either/or here) is wrong except her...:rolleyes:

Now for the best part, what do I do now?! I will visit her again with this document, however I'm dubious that she will accept this. Is there anyone higher that I can go to to apply for rent allowance?? I just want to be assessed now, and this back and forth nonsense with the CWO is taking too long! I first went to the CWO about RA on the 4th of August, and I haven't been allowed to apply yet as I am STILL waiting to be assessed by the council!!

:mad:

Just incase anyone wants to see the HSE RA document, here is the link:

http://communitywelfareservice.ie/cws_public/sites/default/files/Rent%20Supplement%2004.05.10.pdf