Own a house with other half, not married, soon to be unemployed...

I was told last month that the company that i work for will not be in a position to keep me on after xmas. I am a qualified professional and given the economic climate there are no jobs in my professional at this time. I have been actively looking for alternative employment but am not sure if I will have sourced another job come January. I will have no option but to claim jobseekers allowance in January.

I bought a house 3 years ago with my other half, and unfortunately her salary would not be sufficient to cover the mortgage and the bills etc.

Other than jobseekers allowance, are there any other benefits that I can claim? Would I qualify for mortgage interest allowance for my part of the mortgage? Is my other halfs income taken into account if I try and claim this? I'm not sure how it works seeing as we're not married but co-habiting.

You will be treated as a married couiple under SW law. You talk aboput 'allowance'. Do you mean 'benefit'? This is important as the allowance is means-tested and benefit is based on your PRSI contributions (104 paid and 39 paid or credited in relevant tax year (in 2009, this will be 2007)

Yes, apologies Welfarite, I mean benefit. I have been working full time since 2002 so should be entitled to full payment of jobseekers benefit. Her salary would cover our mortgage but we would have less than €500 to live on per month which would be very difficult as we have personal loans too. I am not sure how the mortgage interest allowance is calculated and if we could qualify for it.

See here for info on MIS. also, perhaps you should contact the loans people to explain what might happena nd see if there are options fto defer or pay interest only?