Entitlements when setting up own business

L

laragh

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A friend has just been laid off and is in the process of setting up as a self-employed person. He has just registered with Revenue as such.
However he knows that work will be slow in coming and he will see very little income for a while (a couple of months or longer). His wife is working and is on a good salary and they have been jointly assessed up to now. He was in PAYE employment for the last 5 years and is wondering can he apply for SW benefit even though he is now setting up a business?
 
thats an excellent question, i was just about to post the exact same question
 
I would have thought that to claim SW benefits you have to be available for and actively seeking employment.
 
There may be some room for manouevre on this, depending on your circumstances. This from the www.welfare.ie site:

"
Subsidiary employment

As a general rule, you will not get Jobseeker's Benefit for any day you are employed or self-employed. However, it is possible to do some subsidiary work and still get Jobseeker's Benefit for the day in question.
Subsidiary work is work that could have been done while you were in full-time employment and outside your normal working hours. For example, if your full-time work involved normal working hours 9 am to 5 pm, you might well be able to do subsidiary work from 8 pm to 11 pm and still get Jobseeker's Benefit for that day. If you normally did shift work or worked non-standard hours, such subsidiary work might not be possible. If the subsidiary work involved very late hours, the Department of Social and Family Affairs may take the view that you are not actually available for work the next day. If you already had subsidiary work while working full-time, you will find it easier to meet the requirements.
If you are offered or have subsidiary employment, you should always check with the Department of Social and Family Affairs (DSFA) to see whether or not your Jobseeker's Benefit will be affected.
If you have less than 117 paid PRSI contributions in the three years before becoming unemployed, you may not earn more than €12.70 a day from subsidiary employment. There is no earnings limit if you have more than 117 paid PRSI contributions.
If you are a farmer with other full-time employment, your farming will be your subsidiary employment."
 
Thanks Welfarite,

So he would need to claim that he is only doing this subsidiary work for a couple of hours a day and this is done at night leaving him available for employment as normal during the day.
His day time work at the moment is sending out letters and making phone calls trying to get the word out that he is going out on his own so I suppose this could be covered under subsidiary employment. Its not 'gainful employment' at the moment as he is just spending time (and some money) at this with zero income.
 
Best bet is to talk to the SW people about it adn work around their requirements of him to allow them pay him JB. The spirit of the thing is to allow people get back to work ASAP.
 
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