BTWEA unemployment period

niceview

Hi all,

Im currently nearing the end of a 9 month jobbridge internship and when I finish I want to apply for the Back to work enterprise allowance.

My question is this. Do my 9 months on jobbridge count towards the unemployment period and just how long do you have to be unemployed for?

I thought it was 12 months but I went to my local welfare office and the extremely unhelpful person there gave me a booklet and sent me on my way. The booklet says you need to be unemployed for 2 years so now im confused.

RATM

I'm surprised the booklet says two years because I was on that scheme and it was only 12 months. This was back in 2010 so they might have changed it.

Not sure if your Jobbridge counts as employment for those purposes or not. But Citizens Information might be more helpful to your query- I generally find that people working in FAS and the Social Welfare couldn't give a dam and are poorly trained and tired of dealing with the public.

niceview

Thanks for that. Was it hard to secure?

Everything I see online says 12 months so im not sure. I think I'll take your advice and try citizens advice

RATM

It wasn't terribly difficult to secure. I had to write out a business plan for them (which I had to do anyway for myself). Then I went to a kind of informal interview in a Jobs Club and the guy there rubber stamped the form which was sent to social welfare. I was approved in under a month.

As far as I remember at one stage the period of unemployment was two years and then they reduced it to a year. So it is likely the social welfare worker was giving information that is out of date. In fact I'd bet the house on it as Citizens Information say 12 months here
http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/social_welfare_payments_and_work/back_to_work_enterprise_allowance.html

And they are pretty good at updating their website, keeping with new rules/laws, etc, Whereas the social welfare are a dinosaur of an organisation and generally don't know their heads from their arse.

There has been a few threads on the BTW scheme on this forum, the Social Welfase forum and also on the Work & Jobs one. You should do a search on all three to get the recent experiences of others who have applied.

johnmck

has anybody been on the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance and tried to come off it? what if your business idea fails within the first 2 years and you need to go back on the dole?

colblimp

johnmck wrote: »

has anybody been on the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance and tried to come off it? what if your business idea fails within the first 2 years and you need to go back on the dole?

I've only been on it for a month but this was one of the questions I asked the Enterprise Officer when I was preparing my submission. He said if, after a year, you've tried everything and you know it's not working, inform the Social Welfare and they will look at it. He made a big thing of saying after a year, as opposed to a week before the BTWEA runs out. Hopefully my business will be established by then and I won't need to go back on it!

Hope that helps.

johnmck

"they will look at it"

That sounds like a "piss off you are never getting any help from the State again" answer.

seems to me if it doesn't work out you don't have a leg to stand on and they'll leave you out in the cold dying of starvation.

colblimp

They will look at it are my words - don't be so angry - jeez!

johnmck wrote: »

"they will look at it"

That sounds like a "piss off you are never getting any help from the State again" answer.

seems to me if it doesn't work out you don't have a leg to stand on and they'll leave you out in the cold dying of starvation.

johnmck

I'm not angry with you!

padma

I was on it and had to come off it. After a year the business truly failed with no income at all coming in. I went in to SW and told them the crack. They told me I couldn't come off it.

For the next 7 months I was receiving 75% of my dole, most of which was going to visit my daughter and maintenance. I was living in an abandoned house with no heat, or electricity. I had running water and an open fire which would only heat the sitting room.

Got sick of it and rang the local radio who had a person on it talking about welfare rights. He told me to head straight to citizens advice.

Citizens advice told me to go back up to the SW and sign off it immediately and sign on the dole.

It took 8 months to get on the dole, all the while I was getting a weekly cheque from a CWO, to cover the basics. The 8 months were a nightmare, I was treated like someone who was trying to defraud the state by trying to get on the dole.

I had to show records of everything, Loans, what kind of car did I drive, Statements etc...etc.. Then called again and asked to bring this stuff again and again and again.

The girl I was dealing with was a forensic accountant who I politely would say was a bit discriminatory towards me, so had to go above her. When I complained I was called in by someone else who looked at my appplication and told me to go down to the Post Office and start collecting. End of story.

colblimp

padma wrote: »

I was on it and had to come off it. After a year the business truly failed with no income at all coming in. I went in to SW and told them the crack. They told me I couldn't come off it.

For the next 7 months I was receiving 75% of my dole, most of which was going to visit my daughter and maintenance. I was living in an abandoned house with no heat, or electricity. I had running water and an open fire which would only heat the sitting room.

Got sick of it and rang the local radio who had a person on it talking about welfare rights. He told me to head straight to citizens advice.

Citizens advice told me to go back up to the SW and sign off it immediately and sign on the dole.

It took 8 months to get on the dole, all the while I was getting a weekly cheque from a CWO, to cover the basics. The 8 months were a nightmare, I was treated like someone who was trying to defraud the state by trying to get on the dole.

I had to show records of everything, Loans, what kind of car did I drive, Statements etc...etc.. Then called again and asked to bring this stuff again and again and again.

The girl I was dealing with was a forensic accountant who I politely would say was a bit discriminatory towards me, so had to go above her. When I complained I was called in by someone else who looked at my appplication and told me to go down to the Post Office and start collecting. End of story.

That really scares me. That said, it certainly makes one want the business to succeed!