Giving up work to look after child- entitlements?

Hi! I hope someone can help me.
I gave up work in order to be home with my son who is starting school next week. I was working a 4 day week over the last 4 years.
When I first went to the Social Welfare I was told that I had bujild up enough credits and I could claim on my own stamps for up to a year.

Today is my first day at home and I went to the local Social Welfare office and was told as I havent been working full time I am not entiteled to claim on my stamps. She also told me it was based on the figures from 2007??

I am all confused now but was hoping to claim a weekly allowance if even only for a year.

I have to go in for an interview next week, any help would be much appreciated.
i ahve never claimed for anything in my life...it is all a bit scary..

Thanks

Re: Giving up work to look after child- entitelments?

The main issue you have is that you gave up work to look after your son - hence I don't see how you'd qualify for job seekers benifit even if you had more than enough stamps.

Re: Giving up work to look after child- entitelments?

You must be available for and seeking full-time work in order to claim jobseeker's payment - if you have decided to give up work to become a full-time parent, you will not qualify.

Jobseeker's Benefit payments for 2009 claims are based on the PRSI contributions for 2007 (or in some cases 2005/06). Not all types of PRSI contributions qualify for JB.