# No money and no benefits, help!



## Susied (2 Sep 2009)

Hello, new to here and looking for any advice please. I'm 29 and live with my fiance who is in full tiime employment. I have been unemployed since June when I finished working as a sub Special Needs Asst. I put in claim in Social Welfare and got letter 1st to say my claim had been approved but then next day a phone call to say to call down to office with fiance's details wage slip etc.. Got there and told case was closed and I had to reapply for the jobseekers allowance which is means tested. Got call next day to say I was 7 credits short & wouldn't stand chance anyway coz of my fiance's wage. 
Just before all this I was in hospital for 2 weeks unexpectedly and have been seeing an ortopedic specialist as I have scoliosis(curve of spine). My med bills are comin through the door and they won't stop anytime soon! I'm also repeating leaving cert subjects again this year to go back to college but can't afford grinds now. My fiance has to now foot the mortgage and all his bills aswell as mine. They just looked at his salary not the break down of it! I have cv's in every school form here to Dublin. How am I expected to survive on nothing. I worked for 6 years in full time employment until 2006, went to Oz 4 a year then worked until July '08. I've been doing casual work and subbing since then and informed the social everytime, how many credits could I have used up on social? 
Sorry so long winded but at my wits end. Any advice on what to do, anythin at all please?


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## D8Lady (2 Sep 2009)

Suggest you contact the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed who may be able to help you. 

Also, contact your local [broken link removed], they should be able to help you for your helath & medical needs. 

Perhaps someone else here has mosre experience with your specific circumstances.


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## march (3 Sep 2009)

Terrible situation.

Your Community Welfare Officer in your local health centre should give you financial assistance and Social Welfare should have told you this, but they probably didn't.

Don't bother with the Irish National Organisation of the Unemployed.

I contacted them months ago for advice on funding for a course, a very basic question and they were useless, waste of time.

You need to identify people who can and will help you in your situation.


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## Welfarite (3 Sep 2009)

sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but itf you don't satisy the means test due to fiance's income, then the CWO won't pay a weekly payment either. This is why SW did not tell you this, as March seems to suggest. 
The bottom line is that because you went to Oz, you don't have sufficient paid/credited PRSI contributions to qualify for JB which is not means-tested. SW are treating you and your fiance as a married couple with an income over the limits to give you JA.


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## Raskolnikov (3 Sep 2009)

Welfarite said:


> sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but itf you don't satisy the means test due to fiance's income, then the CWO won't pay a weekly payment either. This is why SW did not tell you this, as March seems to suggest.
> The bottom line is that because you went to Oz, you don't have sufficient paid/credited PRSI contributions to qualify for JB which is not means-tested. SW are treating you and your fiance as a married couple with an income over the limits to give you JA.


Am I right in thinking that she can't even transfer over her tax credits to her partner because they're not married?


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## march (3 Sep 2009)

The CWO in the local health centre works for the HSE.

SW and HSE are completely different organisations.

The CWO in the HSE can make payments in what they deem to be "exeptional circumstances".

You need to put forward a case to your CWO who may be able to assist you financially.


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## Susied (3 Sep 2009)

Thank you everyone for your replies. I went to the social welfare officer as soon as I got the bad news but as someone else rightly said they couldn't help. I contacted my local politician who called to the house, he's going to help me to appeal my case. Hopefully some good news soon! Thanks again!


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## gipimann (3 Sep 2009)

march said:


> The CWO in the local health centre works for the HSE.
> 
> SW and HSE are completely different organisations.
> 
> ...


 
As Welfarite said, if the OP has failed a means test for Jobseeker's, then she will fail the means test for SWA.   

While CWOs work for the HSE (for now), the scheme they administer is a Social Welfare scheme, so the legislation is very similar.

An exceptional needs payment may be considered for a once-off unforeseen need that cannot be reasonably met from resources.  It's difficult to say whether the OP's situation falls within this criteria - although it's open to her to apply.


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## Bronte (4 Sep 2009)

Have you tried to get a medical card to cover you medical bills.  Would you think of getting a job and putting off education for another year.  

Raskolnikov - the social welfare penalises unmarried people without the revenue giving people any of the benefits.  

The OP needs to marry her fiance to get any married persons benefits.


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## Welfarite (4 Sep 2009)

Bronte said:


> Raskolnikov - the social welfare penalises unmarried people without the revenue giving people any of the benefits.
> 
> The OP needs to marry her fiance to get any married persons benefits.


 
SW treat unmarried co-habitants as a 'couple' for SW purposes in order to be fair and equal in payments. If they didn't there would be complaint sthat married people were 'penalised' for being so!


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## Bronte (4 Sep 2009)

Welfarite said:


> SW treat unmarried co-habitants as a 'couple' for SW purposes in order to be fair and equal in payments. If they didn't there would be complaint sthat married people were 'penalised' for being so!


 
That would be ok if revenue did likewise.  Anyway as you very well know lots of unmarried people are well able to get around social welfare


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## Welfarite (4 Sep 2009)

Bronte said:


> That would be ok if revenue did likewise. Anyway as you very well know lots of unmarried people are well able to get around social welfare


 
..and lots of married people!


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## Susied (4 Sep 2009)

Bronte in reply to you, I can't get med card as it is also means tested but have applied for GP card, havn't heard about that as yet! I am job searching like you wouldn't believe. I have ads in local paper and cv's in everywhere, desperately want to be working. As far as education I want to better myself and have a future so it's very important for me to get grinds to repeat my leaving cert. Illness benefit has been mentioned to me as I Doc is worried about me goin back to work so son but that's also means tested and to be honest I want to work now if poss!!


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## annet (4 Sep 2009)

march said:


> The CWO in the local health centre works for the HSE.
> 
> SW and HSE are completely different organisations.
> 
> ...


 
The HSE and DSFA might be two separate orgs - but supplementary Welfare Allowance is a payment that is administered by the HSE on behalf of the DSFA...  one of the administrative anomalies in the system!

It would be highly unlikely that the OP would qualify under the means assessment.... as welfarite say's the CWO would treat the OP and their partner as a married/cohabiting couple.  Re: exceptional needs payments - is the health care received also available within the public health care system - its unlikely they'd consider an application if this was the case - and the means test applies to these kind of payments as well - as far as I am aware?


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