Need help - Question on 9week waiting period for Dole

Hello,

Just wondering if someone can help with this.

Because of my redundancy payment (made redundant on Friday) I am disqualified from Dole for 9 weeks. I had been told by my employer to still go to the Social Welfare on my first week off to register the claim anyway and then the payments will start 9 weeks later.

When I went to Social Welfare office on Tuesday I was told by a very unhelpful person that I was 'wasting her time' and that I could NOT begin to register the claim until the 9 weeks had elapsed??

I did try and say that I had been told otherwise by Citizens Advice and by my old HR people.

My question is -- is the Social Welfare right or am I right and that I need to register the claim regardless of when the payments start??

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Youa re entiutled to make your claim and you should go back and ask for an experienced supervisor, stating what happened (the problem with SW now is that inexperienced new 'recruits' are giving out erroneous info.; no training given due to pressure on experienced staff) It is most important that you 'sign on' even if not getting paid in order to get credits for the weeks of unemployemnt. 'Disqualified' is not 'disallowed', which would result in you not being allowed 'sign on'. They will back date your claim to day after leaving job as you got wrong info.

Cheers