# Not eligible for COVID19 emergency paymnet? Seems entirely unfair



## zxcvbnm (2 Apr 2020)

I am a self-employed IT contractor with my own limited company.

I can no longer apply for contracts at the moment as no companies are hiring. My last contract finished in January so on the form I entered in this date as last employment / payment.

I applied for the emergency payment but I did not receive it. I rang the social welfare office just now and the person who I was speaking with didn't really know why but suspected as my last contract ended prior to march 13 that is why I was not eligible.
(Essentially if you put a date of pre March 13rth then it seems the application went in the bin)

This makes no sense to me.

So essentially for anyone who is self-employed who by chance did not have a client after March 13th automatically does not qualify? This cannot be fair surely?
The reality is for me my business cannot trade now entirely die to the virus. Why on earth would I not be eligible and someone else who happened to have a client more recently is eligible?

Does anyone know maybe the person I spoke with in the office got it wrong? OR are there any other self-employed people here in a similar situation?


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## Saavy99 (3 Apr 2020)

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection has to date made the €350 weekly payment to 283,000 people out of work because of the outbreak.
About 30,000 who applied for the payment before March 26th did not receive it on Tuesday because they were ineligible or their application contained incorrect information.
Around half of these were deemed ineligible because they were not aged 18 to 66 or had been unemployed or not in self-employment before March 13th. They may also be ineligible because they were not laid off or lost their own business because of the outbreak, received some pay or were not fully unemployed, or were not resident in the State.
A department spokeswoman said an appeals process does not apply for turned down applicants because the Covid-19 scheme is an emergency payment.









						Almost 90% of applicants receive Covid-19 unemployment payment
					

About 30,000 people rejected because they are ineligible or submitted incorrect information




					www.irishtimes.com


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