# Wife On Illness Benefit



## Mr Blond (16 Oct 2008)

My wife is on Illness Benefit long term after we had a baby,she only gets just under 90 euro a week.I hear there may be a max time you can be on this now after the budget so I have a few questions.

1)If she comes of this can she claim Job seeker's Allowance

2)If she got on Job seeker's Allowance or something else and it was means tested how does that work..?I earn 50k odd we have 3 kids with another one on the way and a 200k mortgage.

The reason I am asking is I fear we may be cut of from everything and be in a hole,I no she is only getting 90 odd euro a week but its a help.Any other advice appreciated.

Thanks in advance.


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## TillyD (17 Oct 2008)

Mr Blond, 

I've just come off IB and I am now claiming Job Seekers benefit. It will only last for 15 months and if I don't get a job within this time I will be cut off and due to my husbands income I will be entitled to nothing but I'm hoping and should get a job within that time. I am getting 89e a week. 

Hope that helps... Tilly.


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## Mr Blond (19 Oct 2008)

TillyD said:


> Mr Blond,
> 
> I've just come off IB and I am now claiming Job Seekers benefit. It will only last for 15 months and if I don't get a job within this time I will be cut off and due to my husbands income I will be entitled to nothing but I'm hoping and should get a job within that time. I am getting 89e a week.
> 
> Hope that helps... Tilly.


 

Hi,

Thanks for that.I earn 50k odd a year do you think this would mean my wife would get nothing after 15 months on Job seeker's Allowance..?I hope this is not the case as it would not be financially viable for her to work with 4 kids.


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## gipimann (19 Oct 2008)

If it's not financially viable for your wife to work with 4 children are you saying she's not available for work? If so, she won't meet one of the criteria for claiming Jobseeker's (benefit or allowance). She must be actively seeking employment in order to make a claim.

Here is the method of assessing income for a Jobseeker's Allowance claim (taken from www.welfare.ie)


A person, whose spouse/partner is insurably employed, is assessed with the spouse/partner's earnings less allowable deductions.

The means of the spouse is based on his/her assessable earnings. The assessable income of the spouse/partner is the gross earnings less PRSI, Superannuation and Trade Union subscriptions (deductions in respect of income tax ans Health Insurance premiums e.g. VHI, BUPA, Hospital Saturday Fund etc. are not disregarded).

The family rate is based on a personal rate, a full qualified adult rate and full child dependant allowance rate less means. If the customer has a spouse/partner in employment a disregard of €20.00 a day also applies to the spouse/partner for a maximum of 3 days a week (maximum €60.00 a week) and the balance is assessed at 60%. Means are applied in full.


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## star32 (20 Oct 2008)

Have heard nothing about cut off point with illness benefit. i know 2 women that after having babies claimed illness benefit for 8 years and 12 years and as far as i know are still claiming it.  It was for post natal depression. Would be very interesting to see if they put a limit on it.


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## gipimann (21 Oct 2008)

It was announced in the budget that new Illness Benefit claims from Jan 2009 will be limited to max 2 years duration.


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## SlurrySlump (23 Oct 2008)

gipimann said:


> It was announced in the budget that new Illness Benefit claims from Jan 2009 will be limited to max 2 years duration.


 
So if a person is still sick after two years what happens then?

What about people who have been on benefit for over two years is there going to be a cull of these?

Is the Government targeting the sick as well as the elderly?


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## gipimann (23 Oct 2008)

If a person has been on illness benefit for 12 months, they may be eligible to apply for Invalidity Pension (based on PRSI contributions and medical circumstances).

If the person does not have sufficient PRSI contributions to qualify for Invalidity Pension, they may be eligible for Disability Allowance (subject to a means-test and depending on medical circumstances).

If the person does not qualify for Invalidity Pension or Disability Allowance, but is unable to resume work or sign on for Jobseekers, then they may qualify for Supplementary Welfare Allowance which is also means-tested.

These are the current rules of course - no notion of what might happen in the future!


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