Is the wife entitled to Jobseekers allowance.

Myself the wife and the kids moved from Tyrone to Donegal 2 years ago. Both myself and the wife were working in the north until i recently got feed up with the job and packed it in to train as an apprentice in donegal.

I am now currently employed (on low wages) and the wife is off on paid maternity leave from her job in the north... she normally works 2 days a week (11 hours in total).

Should she be able to claim jobseekers allowance? (she is actively seeking full time employment by the way) We have been told by the local welfare office that you claim benefits in the place you work, but she only works 11 hours thus doesnt qualify for WFTC in the north.

See this from the www.welfare.ie site: "Article 71 of the regulations refers to a separate class of workers called "frontier workers". This article defines a frontier worker as any employed or self-employed person who works in the territory of a Member State and lives in the territory of another Member State to which s/he returns as a rule daily or at least once a week.
Article 71 provides that where such a worker becomes partially unemployed (e.g. part-time workers), the state in which that person is normally employed is responsible for paying jobseeker's benefit. However, where a frontier worker becomes fully unemployed, the state in which s/he is resident will be responsible for paying the benefit."

Cheers welfarite... i was getting conflicting information from my local welfare office. One person was saying that she would be entitled to it the other saying she wouldn't.

Since we are on the matter welfarite... do you think we'll be entitled to any other benefits... such as FIS? Our income threshold would be 655 but we are on considerably less than that.

weejasy77 said:

Cheers welfarite... i was getting conflicting information from my local welfare office. One person was saying that she would be entitled to it the other saying she wouldn't.

Since we are on the matter welfarite... do you think we'll be entitled to any other benefits... such as FIS? Our income threshold would be 655 but we are on considerably less than that.

Click to expand...

I'm not too sure about entitlement to FIS but i think not. This is because FIS is payable to somebody living in NI but working here adn i can't see it operating the other way around as well. Is there some sort of equivilant FIS-type payment in NI?

There is working family tax credit in the north, but you have to be working at least 16 hours a week to qualify. I'm going to apply for FIS anyhow as I am working Donegal. Thanks again for the help!