Reduced Days

I have been working with the same employer for the past five years. After three years of working there full time I reduced my days to three day a week. Now they have reduced my 3days to 1 day. I never knew that I could claim for the other days. My employer said that they will write a letter for Social Welfare to say that they have reduced me from 5days to 1day. Is is ok to claim then for the 4 days even though I started to do that almost 3yrs or would I only be able to claim for 2days, seen as that the most recent reduction from 3days to 1 day.

What are you looking to claim? Jobseeker's Benefit/Jobseeker's Allowance or something else? Are you genuinely available for and seeking work on the days off? If not then you cannot claim JB/JA.

If you are only working one day a week, you can claim Jobseeker's Benefit for 5 days a week. SW woreks on a six-day week for benefit purposes (with Sunday not counting). Go into your local Office and tell them your situation.

You could make a claim to have SW payment backdated for the earlier reduction from 5 to 3, but you will need to get employer to confirm what days you did/didn't work.

ClubMan said:

Are you genuinely available for and seeking work on the days off? If not then you cannot claim JB/JA.

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Considering that the employer is reducing the hours, this is not really an issue, and SW will not question it too much. However, if the employee asked for the reduction then it would be....

Welfarite said:

Considering that the employer is reducing the hours, this is not really an issue, and SW will not question it too much. However, if the employee asked for the reduction then it would be....

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I just wasn't clear whether or not this was the case for the original reduction in working time, for the latest one or for both...

mcb said:

I have been working with the same employer for the past five years. After three years of working there full time I reduced my days to three day a week. Now they have reduced my 3days to 1 day. I never knew that I could claim for the other days. My employer said that they will write a letter for Social Welfare to say that they have reduced me from 5days to 1day. Is is ok to claim then for the 4 days even though I started to do that almost 3yrs or would I only be able to claim for 2days, seen as that the most recent reduction from 3days to 1 day.

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It was my decision to originally reduced from five days to three days after I had my first child. So now my employer has reduced from 3day to 1day. I am wondering can I just claim from what my employer reduced from, that is , 3 to 1 day. My employer did say that he will write on letter for social welfare that he has reduced me from 5day to 1day. I did ring social welfare and they said that all i needed was a letter of confirmation from employer, id, and proof of address. I dont want to claim any back dated stuff. I would just be happy if I can claim for the other 4 days. I will be available for work. My employer said that this may be just a temporary situation and if business picks up that i will be back to my normal hours. I will however start looking for work, as I can't wait to see if business picks up. I am another casualty of the construction industry!