Daily signing on for JSA

Nkmln

Heya,

I've been in receipt of JSA for a few months now. Been cooperating with my case officer and jumping through the hoops. When I went to pick up my money there was nothing there, so called my local office in town, was told to come in and talk to them, long story short, I've been told I have to sign on every day to continue to receive my payments, and the only way out of it is full time employment.

I've been back in Ireland for about three years, prior to that I was employed in the states. First two years and a bit years I was looking after my elderly relatives, but had to go on JSA to make ends meet. Still looking for employment but the big gap of unemployment, and the lack of any Irish leaving cert or qualifications make it hard to find anything. Now with signing on every day it's going to make things harder. Is there truly no way out of this?

infogiver

Nkmln wrote: »

Heya,

I've been in receipt of JSA for a few months now. Been cooperating with my case officer and jumping through the hoops. When I went to pick up my money there was nothing there, so called my local office in town, was told to come in and talk to them, long story short, I've been told I have to sign on every day to continue to receive my payments, and the only way out of it is full time employment.

I've been back in Ireland for about three years, prior to that I was employed in the states. First two years and a bit years I was looking after my elderly relatives, but had to go on JSA to make ends meet. Still looking for employment but the big gap of unemployment, and the lack of any Irish leaving cert or qualifications make it hard to find anything. Now with signing on every day it's going to make things harder. Is there truly no way out of this?

When you were looking after elderly relatives you should have been getting Carers Allowance not JSA were you getting JSA all the time?
Did you mention to SW at any stage that you were Caring? Were you aware of Carers Allowance at all? Maybe you were getting Carers.
JSA is only for applicants who are available for full time work, when you were caring you were not eligible.
Clearly it's reached the stage now where they've come to the conclusion that your not really looking for full time work.
Added to that in the 3 years you've been back from the US It seems ( you don't mention doing any training or education) you've not made any effort to address your lack of qualifications despite there being numerous routes back into training and education available to you. Were you aware of training schemes, Back to Education Allowance Solas etc?
If you have never mentioned to them before this the fact that you were Caring, say nothing now as you may even find yourself in an Overpayment situation (having to pay back all the JSA you got when you weren't available for work).
If you can truthfully claim that you were never informed of training schemes or education opportunities ( they have a file on you which would show if you were or not) then you would maybe have a case to say that this penalty was unreasonably harsh.
The unemployment situation has improved dramatically in this country recently. There are vacancies signs in lots of retail premises windows right now in the run up to Christmas.
Signing on every day is very stressful and very pressurised .
It's a kind of a "last resort" that case workers apply when it becomes increasingly obvious that a JSA is not fully engaging with the Dept.
What you describe as "jumping through hoops" was the Dept doing their best to help you on the road to full time employment , not an obstacle course to be completed successfully in order to keep qualifying for a weekly payment.
Why do you think you haven't got a job?

Edups

Sounds like excuses.
No one is ignoring your job application because you don't have a leaving cert and even if you think that's the case just say you did? I didn't sit my leaving cert or junior for that matter and I was working in several places over the last 4 years part time, you don't need to have sat a leaving cert to work in Aldi for example who are hiring in some areas recently. Like info giver said, there are an abundance of shops hiring for Christmas, get up and just leave CVs in every shop you go past. There is no shortage of jobs anymore, that's a fallacy. Tell your SW case worker that your signing on everyday will dearly impede your ability to job hunt and supply evidence of same. They did it because you're clearly not supplying proof you're job searching. Keep a record of every job you apply for (if you do online print the confirmation email) don't think you can just say "aye I left cvs into x y z business because they will ring and ask. Once you show that you're actually searching they'll rescind the restriction. Get in to them and do some courses, you don't have to like the course just do it anyway, because doing nothing doesn't suit them, they aren't paying you Job Seekers to sit at home the only thing you're seeking is free cash.

smjm

Nkmln wrote: »

Heya,

I've been in receipt of JSA for a few months now. Been cooperating with my case officer and jumping through the hoops. When I went to pick up my money there was nothing there, so called my local office in town, was told to come in and talk to them, long story short, I've been told I have to sign on every day to continue to receive my payments, and the only way out of it is full time employment.

I've been back in Ireland for about three years, prior to that I was employed in the states. First two years and a bit years I was looking after my elderly relatives, but had to go on JSA to make ends meet. Still looking for employment but the big gap of unemployment, and the lack of any Irish leaving cert or qualifications make it hard to find anything. Now with signing on every day it's going to make things harder. Is there truly no way out of this?

Could be that your local office have got it into their heads that you're either working already, or that you're not living in the locality full time. Only you know the details though. Did they not give you an explicit reason?

As infogiver mentioned, have you considered applying for Carer's Allowance, presuming you're living with your elderly relatives and that at least one of them requires full time care?

Although the job situation has improved in many areas in the country, it's still pretty dire in others, especially if you're not living in a town and don't have access to your own vehicle or regular public transport. I wish you the best of luck.

MFlack2012

Maybe look into doing a course with ETB, a lot are full time and this would also cut out daily signing, I would say, you would also then be upskilling to hopefully get placed in employment. There's lots of ETB courses in a lot of different areas of employment.