Graduate daughter refused job seekers allowance

My daughter, aged 22, graduated this summer and after working in a temporary retail job until September, applied for JSA. Since she lives with us, she was means tested on our incomes and deemed not eligible for anything. This is upsetting for her as all she wants is money for bus fares etc while job hunting and not having to ask us all the time, though I've told her this is no problem. We are an average family of five, with both parents working (PAYE), but, like the majority, caught in "the middle" and being squeezed more and more.

What are her options now with Social Welfare and job search support?
Does her ineligibility prevent her from going to the local FÁS office for job search support?
Will her ineligibility deter employers from offering her internships if she cannot get a paying job?
On the means test letter, it states: "You should continue to sign for credits". How does she do this and what are the real benefits?

She is not yet ready to emigrate for work.

My questions may be simplistic, but, this is my eldest and our first real experience with the Social Welfare, though with two teenagers and the worsening depression, it probably won't be our last.

Thank you in advance.

carpedeum said:

On the means test letter, it states: "You should continue to sign for credits". How does she do this and what are the real benefits?

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How to do it. Go to the social welfare office, queue up at reception, tell them you want to sign for credits having failed means test for Jobseekers, she will be given an appointment a week or so later with the same form to fill out as one would fill out for Jobseekers, except handwritten across the top will be 'sign for credits'.

Fill out the form (same info as previous time it was filled out), go to appointment, someone will get her to sign a card and tell her to come back in 1 year to sign it again.

I fail to understand why they make you do the same form and appointment for above as a person just did for the means test, its clearly on their system that the means test is failed so you are simply performing what is imo a time wasting exercise with a staff member to have an appointment for it.

Anyway. The point of it is that pension contributions will be made despite her not working and paying income tax.

I've come to the conclusion that time-wasting exercises are part and parcel of the DSP "way".

My own 21-year-old graduate daughter was in a similar situation this summer and was given an appalling runaround by the local SW office, long after it was clearly established that she was still eligible for €58/week after means-testing (mine is our only salary in a family of seven). She got three and a half months of stonewalling, misinformation, "lost" paperwork, deliberate and egregious miscalculation of earnings and entitlements and endless demands for information already supplied, each time kicking the ball another week or fortnight down the road. In the end I had to write a letter for her, detailing the 15 weeks of "fail" and indicating that she would be lodging a formal complaint against the deciding officer. The money eventually came through, but not before she'd ended up emigrating for work.

I know the OP's situation is different; I just wanted to sympathise and warn him/her what to expect.

Truthseeker and DrMoriarty,

Thanks for the replies.

My daughter got some good news later today, in that she got accepted for an internship. I know it's unpaid, but, at least it is relevant to her degree, gives her a focus every day for a few months and postpones emigration.

It's funny how we are becoming conditioned to accept internships and emigration for our children and accept the closure of our defined benefit pension schemes (mine after 30 years membership) while we work harder to pay more taxes and levies for the propping up of the banks and NAMA, to compensate the German and other speculators and protect the pensions of the bankers and politicians. I just hope the Labour Party, Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are ready when they come around canvassing next election. The question will be, who do we vote for if a new party for people like us has not been formed by then!

Nothing to do with "conditioning", its called "life"! All is not lost here, your daughter will be getting work experience IN her chosen field! Invaluable!! "Delays emigration"? So? Is emigration really so bad for a 22yro?

There was nothing when I left school, signed for credits (can Not stress how important it will be at the end of anyones working life to have fullest work/benefits history possible), emigrated (LOVED & best education I could of had at 20/21yro), returned, was means tested, moved into a bedsit so I wouldn't feel like a sponge & eventually after 9mths of credits/dole finally got a permanent job I am still in 19yrs later - doesn't anyone remember we've been through these cycles of depression or contraction before?

This time is just a bit deeper cos we got a bit higher & the whole world is along for the ride but We.Will.Survive as the song goes! Best of luck to your daughter, hope she loves her internship & its the start of a long & happy career