Illness benefit & eligible for CE scheme?

little.rose

hi there, I'm on illness benefit for over a year. From what I gather, if I can prove that the CE scheme job will have a positive influence on my recovery I may be eligible. My question is whether this will result in a means test as I moved in with my folks due to illness and let out my home. The benefit pays for my prescriptions, doc visits and not much more. Am I opening a can of worms by seeking a CE scheme job? thanks for any advice guys, I just want to get back to some form of employment

Lugh Ildanach

If you get an exemption to do a CE scheme (and that's a big IF, as they are really clamping down on exemptions at the minute), then you will get an additional 20 Euro on top of your current payment. There is no means test on CE.

You probably are opening up a can of worms. They are giving fewer and fewer exemptions (I don't know anyone who has been given one since January!) and if you try to appeal/review the decision then you're left the in difficult position of trying to say that you can do the work on the CE scheme, but you're not able to do work in the normal work enironment.

There is now the partial capacity benefit, which they just rolled out. They will be pushing Illness Benefit/Invalidity Pension recipients towards this instead of CE. http://www.welfare.ie/EN/Press/PressReleases/2012/Pages/pr130212.aspx

little.rose

thanks so much. That's as I expected. I'll keep working on getting better and fingers crossed for a full time job that I can go direct to