Corona virus and social protection

SleetAndSnow

SleetAndSnow wrote: »

If you are currently on the PUP, then yes you will continue to receive the PUP. If you were earning 199.99 on average before the pandemic then you will get 350 still but if you were below that mark you will start to receive 203 each week until August 10th.

College students are entitled to the PUP, but we cannot apply to the Jobseekers which will most likely need to be done after August 10th if you still can't find a job after that time.

Not exactly. If you were earning up to and including €199.99 before pandemic, you drop back to €203. €200 and over, you get the €350.

https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/3baec-minister-doherty-announces-pandemic-unemployment-payment-to-continue/

Always Be Closing

What happens when the 12 payments expire?

My mum is on week 8 of her payment, has another month to run but works in a school and probably won't be back until late september.

Does she then need to apply for another payment or is it extended?

Thanks

ATC110

Got a notification via my welfare.ie that my payment is being reduced to the lower rate. The DEASP has assessed my income after capital allowances have been deducted.

There is an appeals process by post which needs to be made within 21 days.

loki7777

Hi.
I was off work for a week. Was told by my employer to ring gp and have covid19 test done. That was done 4 days later another 2 days to get results(negative so back to work). Have my test results and "normal cert" from gp - uploaded all to mygovid webpage and also sent an email(with copy of both) to illness benefit but today i got email back stating: "Unfortunately the medical evidence you supplied is not accepted for the purposes of illness benefit. Please request a Certificate of Incapacity from your GP or to forward correspondence from the HSE confirming that you had been directed by them to self-isolate." Is this cert Certificate of Incapacity a special cert(only for a time of covid??| - I asked my gp for it but got normal medical certificate.

loki7777

loki7777 wrote: »

Hi.
I was off work for a week. Was told by my employer to ring gp and have covid19 test done. That was done 4 days later another 2 days to get results(negative so back to work). Have my test results and "normal cert" from gp - uploaded all to mygovid webpage and also sent an email(with copy of both) to illness benefit but today i got email back stating: "Unfortunately the medical evidence you supplied is not accepted for the purposes of illness benefit. Please request a Certificate of Incapacity from your GP or to forward correspondence from the HSE confirming that you had been directed by them to self-isolate." Is this cert Certificate of Incapacity a special cert(only for a time of covid??| - I asked my gp for it but got normal medical certificate.

I don’t think that you’d have gotten anything anyway for the first week.

“ You must apply for Illness Benefit within 6 weeks of becoming ill. No payment is made for the first 6 days of illness, which are known as waiting days. (Note that Sunday is not counted as a waiting day.) The only time that the 6 waiting days are not applied is if you were getting certain other social welfare payments within 3 days of the start of your illness. Waiting days do not apply if you are diagnosed with COVID-19 or if you are medically required to self-isolate.” https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/social_welfare/social_welfare_payments/disability_and_illness/disability_benefit.html

loki7777

OK. I thought that with covid-19 is different story.
But reading here https://services.mywelfare.ie/en/topics/covid-19-payments/illness-benefit/ it doesn't say anything about the first week. Same is here https://www.gov.ie/en/service/df55ae-how-to-apply-for-illness-benefit-for-covid-19-absences/ ? Or i don't get something?

loki7777

loki7777 wrote: »

OK. I thought that with covid-19 is different story.
But reading here https://services.mywelfare.ie/en/topics/covid-19-payments/illness-benefit/ it doesn't say anything about the first week. Same is here https://www.gov.ie/en/service/df55ae-how-to-apply-for-illness-benefit-for-covid-19-absences/ ? Or i don't get something?

Sorry, I misunderstood. You’re right. It’s most likely that the certificate you sent in was for an illness other than Covid. I’d get back on to doctors secretaries and explain situation and they should be able to help you.

“ Rules
You can apply for enhanced Illness Benefit, if you are:

Suspected of having COVID-19 and are told by a doctor or directed by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to self-isolate or
Diagnosed with COVID-19
To qualify for COVID-19 enhanced Illness Benefit, you must:

Be aged between 18 and 66
Have a medical certificate called a ‘Certificate of incapacity for work’ from a doctor or have a text or letter notification from the HSE to support your application
Be employed or self-employed and have worked in the 4 weeks before the date of your medical certification
Have a current contract of employment, if you are an employee
To get the payment, you must have a medical certificate called a ‘Certificate of incapacity for work’ from your own doctor or have a letter or text notification from the HSE telling you that you have been identified as having contact with someone who has COVID-19.”

loki7777

Deleted User wrote: »

Sorry, I misunderstood. You’re right. It’s most likely that the certificate you sent in was for an illness other than Covid. I’d get back on to doctors secretaries and explain situation and they should be able to help you.

“ Rules
You can apply for enhanced Illness Benefit, if you are:

Suspected of having COVID-19 and are told by a doctor or directed by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to self-isolate or
Diagnosed with COVID-19
To qualify for COVID-19 enhanced Illness Benefit, you must:

Be aged between 18 and 66
Have a medical certificate called a ‘Certificate of incapacity for work’ from a doctor or have a text or letter notification from the HSE to support your application
Be employed or self-employed and have worked in the 4 weeks before the date of your medical certification
Have a current contract of employment, if you are an employee
To get the payment, you must have a medical certificate called a ‘Certificate of incapacity for work’ from your own doctor or have a letter or text notification from the HSE telling you that you have been identified as having contact with someone who has COVID-19.”

I definitely will go back to them. Thank You

Snow_White1987

Did anyone else receive a text regarding their PUP and it getting reduced? My payment shouldn't be reduced but yet I got a text which says that it might be... I wonder is this the norm or is it a fraudulent text?

Thank you.

Segundo Volanante

Guys there was 203 there this morning instead of the usual 350

What is going on?

Snow_White1987

Segundo Volanante wrote: »

Guys there was 203 there this morning instead of the usual 350

What is going on?

Mine was the same, even though I worked full time in 2018 and earned more than €199 per week.

I’m self employed but as I’ve only been self employed since January 2019 and therefore haven’t submitted my tax return yet (due October), it says on their website that 2018 earnings would be used so there’s definitely been a mistake with mine.

Very odd, has it happened to anyone else?

I’ll have to call them this morning.

Segundo Volanante

Snow_White1987 wrote: »

Mine was the same, even though I worked full time in 2018 and earned more than €199 per week.

I’m self employed but as I’ve only been self employed since January 2019 and therefore haven’t submitted my tax return yet (due October), it says on their website that 2018 earnings would be used so there’s definitely been a mistake with mine.

Very odd, had it happened to anyone else?

I’ll have to call them this morning.

Exactly

I confirmed my ongoing eligibility last week and received no notification that the payment would be reduced.

Please let me know what they say when you speak to them

Snow_White1987

Segundo Volanante wrote: »

Exactly

I confirmed my ongoing eligibility last week and received no notification that the payment would be reduced.

Please let me know what they say when you speak to them

Did you earn more than €199 either in 2019 or 2018? Have they definitely made an error in your case too?

I’d get in touch with them this morning if so.

Segundo Volanante

Snow_White1987 wrote: »

Did you earn more than €199 either in 2019 or 2018? Have they definitely made an error in your case too?

I’d get in touch with them this morning if so.

I'm posting on behalf of my sister.

She earns like 100 a week doing some ad hoc work for a pre school, pays her tax and doesn't claim jobseekers for the hours she's not working.

She has been getting thr 350 for 8 weeks then suddenly today there's just 203

Snow_White1987

Segundo Volanante wrote: »

I'm posting on behalf of my sister.

She earns like 100 a week doing some ad hoc work for a pre school, pays her tax and doesn't claim jobseekers for the hours she's not working.

She has been getting thr 350 for 8 weeks then suddenly today there's just 203

Ah, then her rate would be reduced.

You have to be earning at least €199 per week or your rate is cut to €203.

Segundo Volanante

Snow_White1987 wrote: »

Ah, then her rate would be reduced.

You have to be earning at least €199 per week or your rate is cut to €203.

That was my question - was this a widely known thing? By that I mean was there an announcement that there would be a rate reduction? As I must've missed it, I just presumed it was 350 x 12 weeks?

Thanks for any info :-)

Snow_White1987

Segundo Volanante wrote: »

That was my question - was this a widely known thing? By that I mean was there an announcement that there would be a rate reduction? As I must've missed it, I just presumed it was 350 x 12 weeks?

Thanks for any info :-)

It’s been posted here:

https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/ce26b-how-your-earnings-are-accessed-for-the-change-in-rate-in-covid-19-pandemic-unemployment-payment/

Dempo1

Snow_White1987 wrote: »

Mine was the same, even though I worked full time in 2018 and earned more than €199 per week.

I’m self employed but as I’ve only been self employed since January 2019 and therefore haven’t submitted my tax return yet (due October), it says on their website that 2018 earnings would be used so there’s definitely been a mistake with mine.

Very odd, has it happened to anyone else?

I’ll have to call them this morning.

I'm thinking your after getting caught between currently claiming as self employed although you were an employee in 2018, basically revenue, when checking your self employed earnings in 2018 would have nothing to work on. If you were claiming now as a laid off employee, Revenue would have worked off 2019 earning plus Jan and Feb this year. Its a bit of a mess to be honest but can be appealed, there's an email address supplied in the mywelfre portal. Hope you get it sorted but it's going to be complicated

Snow_White1987

Dempo1 wrote: »

I'm thinking your after getting caught between currently claiming as self employed although you were an employee in 2018, basically revenue, when checking your self employed earnings in 2018 would have nothing to work on. If you were claiming now as a laid off employee, Revenue would have worked off 2019 earning plus Jan and Feb this year. Its a bit of a mess to be honest but can be appealed, there's an email address supplied in the mywelfre portal. Hope you get it sorted but it's going to be complicated

I was thinking this is what may have happened - very unfortunate for those newly self employed but it’s still a gray area they should look at.

I sent an email with my tax earnings for 2018 anyhow as I’d have nothing to work on as self-employed and will call them now. Thank you for the reply.

Dempo1

Snow_White1987 wrote: »

I was thinking this is what may have happened - very unfortunate for those newly self employed but it’s still a gray area they should look at.

I sent an email with my tax earnings for 2018 anyhow as I’d have nothing to work on as self-employed and will call them now. Thank you for the reply.

Good luck, I'm sure they'll be able to recheck your earnings for 2019, keep us posted

Irishphotodesk

Dempo1 wrote: »

I'm thinking your after getting caught between currently claiming as self employed although you were an employee in 2018, basically revenue, when checking your self employed earnings in 2018 would have nothing to work on. If you were claiming now as a laid off employee, Revenue would have worked off 2019 earning plus Jan and Feb this year. Its a bit of a mess to be honest but can be appealed, there's an email address supplied in the mywelfre portal. Hope you get it sorted but it's going to be complicated

I’m in a similar position, except I’m self employed since 2005.

Was on covid for March/April, at the end of April, one of my employers told me they could give me some work, so signed off covid and halfway through the week employment was stopped and changed to 3 days every 2 weeks, contacted social welfare to be told since I’m in employment, I no longer qualify for covid, so I had to apply for some X’s And O’s system where I tell welfare what I have worked.
However since I’m self employed I have had to gather account statements and file 2019 accounts and explain transactions and transfers between accounts, I don’t begrudge the social welfare people for being thorough, but have to admit their timelines are unrealistic, they send a letter saying to get various statements etc to them within 7 days (I couldn’t get access to all the required details within the period and received a letter saying my application was rejected on basis I didn’t supply documentation and this can be appealed etc, it took me almost to the deadline of the appeal process to gather all the information requested in the original request)

So as it stands for me, I have an appeal in and currently working 3days every 2 weeks which has me earning about 1k a month, because I have had to file the 2019 accounts I now have to pay revenue the owed income tax and pay the accountant bill (which I don’t have), I am hopeful welfare will come through soon because if it doesn’t I’m going to have to ask family for money.(most of my family kept working through the pandemic)

I’m honestly beyond caring at this point....if I could get a job in any industry I would take it, I haven’t done up a fresh CV in about 20years, myself and my wife discussed this yesterday, realistically I need to earn over 35k for us to pay mortgage, bills and maintain debt repayments.... which is unrealistic given qualifications obtained are 20years old and I may have to retrain for whatever roles are available.

Snow_White1987

Dempo1 wrote: »

Good luck, I'm sure they'll be able to recheck your earnings for 2019, keep us posted

That’s the thing, as I’m newly self-employed I haven’t filed a tax return as a self-employed person yet so they’ll only have my 2018 tax which was paid as an employee.

The woman on the phone was very nice but just gave me the email address to contact - she also thinks I’ve been caught as a newly self-employed person which will be the case for quite a lot of people so I hope they make exceptions.

Dempo1

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

I’m in a similar position, except I’m self employed since 2005.

Was on covid for March/April, at the end of April, one of my employers told me they could give me some work, so signed off covid and halfway through the week employment was stopped and changed to 3 days every 2 weeks, contacted social welfare to be told since I’m in employment, I no longer qualify for covid, so I had to apply for some X’s And O’s system where I tell welfare what I have worked.
However since I’m self employed I have had to gather account statements and file 2019 accounts and explain transactions and transfers between accounts, I don’t begrudge the social welfare people for being thorough, but have to admit their timelines are unrealistic, they send a letter saying to get various statements etc to them within 7 days (I couldn’t get access to all the required details within the period and received a letter saying my application was rejected on basis I didn’t supply documentation and this can be appealed etc, it took me almost to the deadline of the appeal process to gather all the information requested in the original request)

So as it stands for me, I have an appeal in and currently working 3days every 2 weeks which has me earning about 1k a month, because I have had to file the 2019 accounts I now have to pay revenue the owed income tax and pay the accountant bill (which I don’t have), I am hopeful welfare will come through soon because if it doesn’t I’m going to have to ask family for money.(most of my family kept working through the pandemic)

I’m honestly beyond caring at this point....if I could get a job in any industry I would take it, I haven’t done up a fresh CV in about 20years, myself and my wife discussed this yesterday, realistically I need to earn over 35k for us to pay mortgage, bills and maintain debt repayments.... which is unrealistic given qualifications obtained are 20years old and I may have to retrain for whatever roles are available.

Your caught between a rock and Department of SW, Sadly alot of people acted in good faith and signed of PUP only to be left high and dry a few days later. The system is very rigid, no room for movement and once a pup is closed, its near impossible to reactive.

My blood boils when I look at the TWSS, for those on PUP, you may not be aware, there are thousands of employees furloughed (tem laid off), their employers put them on this scheme, many are fully closed and yet employees getting up to €2800 pm and not a whisper about this disgraceful situation. I'd presumed the TWSS was geared towards employee's actually back at work. In the meantime PUP recipients about to thrown to the wolves. I know 3 people personally who've been laid off completely since lock down, still getting up to €2800pm through the TWSS scheme and 2 have been told, when the scheme ends they'll be made redundant. It's outrageous and completely unfair. PUP recipients had no choice but to claim and are portrayed as scroungers in certain circles.

Its a farce

Irishphotodesk

Snow_White1987 wrote: »

That’s the thing, as I’m newly self-employed I haven’t filed a tax return as a self-employed person yet so they’ll only have my 2018 tax which was paid as an employee.

The woman on the phone was very nice but just gave me the email address to contact - she also thinks I’ve been caught as a newly self-employed person which will be the case for quite a lot of people so I hope they make exceptions.

I was told I had to get the 2019 accounts done, I got in touch with my accountant to check if it was possible to prepare them but not file so I could gauge if I had enough money set aside (luckily for me my earnings have been on the drop for a few years now so my income tax for 2019 is around 2.5k and I had most of this set aside already), I need to pay the accountants bill now though.

So if it’s possible for you to get 2019 accounts done, do it, this will help revenue understand your cash flow and see if they can help you or not.

Irishphotodesk

Dempo1 wrote: »

Your caught between a rock and Department of SW, Sadly alot of people acted in good faith and signed of PUP only to be left high and dry a few days later. The system is very rigid, no room for movement and once a pup is closed, its near impossible to reactive.

My blood boils when I look at the TWSS, for those on PUP, you may not be aware, there are thousands of employees furloughed (tem laid off), their employers put them on this scheme, many are fully closed and yet employees getting up to €2800 pm and not a whisper about this disgraceful situation. I'd presumed the TWSS was geared towards employee's actually back at work. In the meantime PUP recipients about to thrown to the wolves. I know 3 people personally who've been laid off completely since lock down, still getting up to €2800pm through the TWSS scheme and 2 have been told, when the scheme ends they'll be made redundant. It's outrageous and completely unfair. PUP recipients had no choice but to claim and are portrayed as scroungers in certain circles.

Its a farce

I’m sure in the long run it will all work out, (like I said earlier, I’m beyond caring)

There are always going to be people who take advantage of the system or find a loophole and exploit it, I think that revenue/social welfare are trying to weed through the 500k people and trying to find those who are genuine and those who are extracting the urine, there’s a few reports of a recruiter who was claiming about 25 different peoples payments.

The system was set up quickly and there may be many people who fall through the cracks, I believe I’m in the awkward position of being one of those people, but all I can do is keep in touch with social welfare and try to facilitate them with any requests they have.

Snow_White1987

Irishphotodesk wrote: »

I was told I had to get the 2019 accounts done, I got in touch with my accountant to check if it was possible to prepare them but not file so I could gauge if I had enough money set aside (luckily for me my earnings have been on the drop for a few years now so my income tax for 2019 is around 2.5k and I had most of this set aside already), I need to pay the accountants bill now though.

So if it’s possible for you to get 2019 accounts done, do it, this will help revenue understand your cash flow and see if they can help you or not.

I unfortunately don’t think it will be possible to get my accounts done this quickly - but I will check with my accountant this morning.

I rang to double check something and on the helpline they actually said they shouldn’t discriminate on that basis and to appeal it so I’ll see what happens.

Irishphotodesk

Dempo1 wrote: »

Your caught between a rock and Department of SW, Sadly alot of people acted in good faith and signed of PUP only to be left high and dry a few days later. The system is very rigid, no room for movement and once a pup is closed, its near impossible to reactive.

My blood boils when I look at the TWSS, for those on PUP, you may not be aware, there are thousands of employees furloughed (tem laid off), their employers put them on this scheme, many are fully closed and yet employees getting up to €2800 pm and not a whisper about this disgraceful situation. I'd presumed the TWSS was geared towards employee's actually back at work. In the meantime PUP recipients about to thrown to the wolves. I know 3 people personally who've been laid off completely since lock down, still getting up to €2800pm through the TWSS scheme and 2 have been told, when the scheme ends they'll be made redundant. It's outrageous and completely unfair. PUP recipients had no choice but to claim and are portrayed as scroungers in certain circles.

Its a farce

I had to look up the TWSS scheme, I don’t know if my employers are claiming on this but from reading online i think they might qualify.

I fit the criteria for the short term work support, however I will let social welfare complete current appeal/application and might let my employer know of the TWSS scheme and let my co-workers know of the short term work support. (This requires that you are no longer claiming covid, which I think the others are)

Not sure if I was reading it properly but the employer can claim the employees wages (from social welfare) but they do not necessarily have to pass on the money and the employee if they are on reduced hours can claim short term work support and receive money from social welfare also....it doesn’t sound right but that’s my understanding of what I read online.

theglobe

Dempo1 wrote: »

I'm thinking your after getting caught between currently claiming as self employed although you were an employee in 2018, basically revenue, when checking your self employed earnings in 2018 would have nothing to work on. If you were claiming now as a laid off employee, Revenue would have worked off 2019 earning plus Jan and Feb this year. Its a bit of a mess to be honest but can be appealed, there's an email address supplied in the mywelfre portal. Hope you get it sorted but it's going to be complicated

I worked as an employee between jan-march 2018 but have been self employed since then. Would they only use my self employed total? I definitely earned more than 10k so I'm not sure why I was reduced. It was from foreign income that was taxed in Ireland if that makes a difference.

Dempo1

In a nut shell the TWSS is claimed through revenue via employer, social welfare are not involved in this scheme. Payroll is submitted to Revenue and based on that, Revenue pays up to 85% of the each employees salary. It is totally discretionary as to whether or not the employer tops up the each salary.

In relation to part time hours etc, my understanding is that this is not relevant to the scheme as such, the employer submits the payroll details. I have one friend who works 3 days a week, he is currently getting 85% of his salary but his employer is topping up the short fall.

As an aside, and again separate issue, you can claim for shorter hours, but this is a another benefit claimed through social welfare, there is some information on this via the mygovID portal in the welfare section.

Snow_White1987

theglobe wrote: »

I worked as an employee between jan-march 2018 but have been self employed since then. Would they only use my self employed total? I definitely earned more than 10k so I'm not sure why I was reduced. It was from foreign income that was taxed in Ireland if that makes a difference.

I think unfortunately, lots of recently self-employed are getting caught because of the rigid structure they use to make the payment cuts. Perhaps, they wouldn't have thought of it, but may now if many ring in.

I'm being told so many different things – Welfare came back to me on Twitter and said they aren't even sure filing 2019 now will make a differece so until they respond to my email I've no clue what to do.

Seems very unfair as self-employed or not I pay my tax every year!