Jobseekers benefit

Hi,

I have a question about claiming jobseekers benefit and was hoping someone who has been in a similar situation or who understands the system better might be able to help me!

I believe that jobseekers benefit depends on my average weekly wage, plus the amount of weeks that I have paid PRSI, but Im not sure if this is last year, the year before, or the year before that!
(I did look on revenue.ie but i found it hard to understand)


I have been working f/t since October 2006.
In total I worked about 26 weeks in 2006 and earned on average 450euros per week before tax.
In 2007 I worked f/t in the same job all year and earned on average 550euros per week before tax.
Im still working in this job but I will be made redundant at the end of this month. I will begin looking for a new job. I already have an offer of a temporary job for about two months.


So my question is,
Based on my earnings over the past 2 years would I be eligible to claim jobseekers benefit?
And if I am, can I claim it for say two weeks, take the temp job to keep me going, and then claim it again if Im unemployed again for a period while looking for a permanent job?

I hope that someone can offer some advice,
Thanks in advance! M

If you qualify for Jobseekers Benefit it will be paid at the standard rate of €197.80 and will not be affected by your earnings.

To qualify you must have paid 52 PRSI payments since starting work

and
39 paid or credited in 2006 or 26 paid in 2006 and 26 paid in 2005

Is that €197.80 per week? Is it a standard amount independent of what salary is/was?

If your salary was very low, then the amount you get could be reduced, but in most cases it will be the full amount

There used to be an extra payment along with Jobseeker's Benefit called Pay-Related Benefit but that's long gone. Perhaps that's what posters might be remembering.

Mickeyg
197.80 is for a 6 day week and is not based on what you earned.

Thanks for all the advice guys!

Black Sheep said:

If you qualify for Jobseekers Benefit it will be paid at the standard rate of €197.80 and will not be affected by your earnings.

To qualify you must have paid 52 PRSI payments since starting work

and
39 paid or credited in 2006 or 26 paid in 2006 and 26 paid in 2005

Click to expand...

Since beginning this job I have paid roughly 75 PRSI payments, but I didnt pay 39 in 2006 or the 26 in 2005.. Its quite a long way to be looking back isnt it?
Will I be completely unqualified because of this? It doesnt take my year and a half of permanent work and PRSI payments into account! :/

Assuming I dont qualify for this, does anyone know if I would qualify for Jobseekers Allowance? (and how this would be affected by temporary work?)

Cheers!

Did you ring them at any stage today?

They'd be able to give you a guide over the phone.

Was the job in 2006 your first ever employment or first after full-time education was completed? This would have a bearing on whether you would get pre-entry credits to help make up to 39.

TBH, the best thing would be for you to visdit your local office and ask them these questions.

The reason that 2006 is used is that there is a "breathing space" of one year frofm Dec 06 to Jan 08 to allow for employers to get records into Revenue and for Revenue to get people's records updated on the systme. It would be suilly to base SW claims made in Jan 08 on stamps paid in Dec 07.....imagine the chasing around most people would be doing trying to get records updated?!