BTEA and Spouse's Earnings

M

MaryMcK

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Evening all, hoping someone here can please advise. I plan to return to full time education in September and I will be in receipt of Back to Education Allowance. I have been unemployed since November 2013, therefore will be 9 months out of work before commencing my course. At present, my husband is employed by a CE Scheme which is now coming to a close. He may be able to gain employment though the new Jobs Plus Scheme (hopefully!). And herein lies the question.

Will by payment for BTEA be affected by his earnings? I would assume that he will earn little more than minimum wage for a full time position. Can anyone advise how this will affect my BTEA payment, say for example he earned €360 per week (a guesstimate at this point). We have a small child if this affects anything. Many thanks in advance for any assistance you can give.
 
Thanks for your comment, gipimann. Yes, I'd read the info on that site previously, I suppose I was just looking for some figures. It's hard to work it out in actual monetary terms, but I think I have it cracked. You take spouse's gross earnings, deduct 3 x €20, calculate 60% of the balance and this is your means. In my case that would be (based on approx of €360) €180. This €180 would be deducted from the total of Personal allowance €188, plus adult dependant €125 (rounded), plus half child dependant €15 (roughly), meaning I should be eligible for approx €148 (or thereabouts). I think :) This would be such a huge help and I would really, really love to get off the dole and get a shot at a proper career after education. Please God it'll all work out. Which leads me to my next query... sorry guys...

As I stated earlier, I have only been on the dole since last November. If applying for BTEA now, I will not have been on JSA for the required 9 months. However, the 9 months will have been fulfilled before the course starts in September. Should I wait to apply until August (the 9 month mark) or apply now and have faith that they will process it, allowing for future payments up to the date of commencement of the course. Does that even make sense?! Many thanks once again for any help you can give.
 
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