I'm hoping someone can give some advice for my sister.
She finished school, took a year off to work and save money, and then started college. She graduated in 2010, and struggled to find work so claimed social welfare. She finally got a part time job in September 2011, working 3 days and claiming for the others. A couple of weeks ago she was at the doctor as she got what the doctor thinks was some kind of bite (no one is sure) it caused severe allergic reaction and half of her shin blistered. After weeks of infection and a huge amount of pain, it was determined that the tissue in her leg was now dead, it couldnt heal and would continue to get infected. She was sent straight to hospital, they removed the dead tissue and had to do a skin graft. She has been on bed rest for the past 2 weeks, going back to hospital for dressing changes. It is now infected again and they cant tell her when she can go back to work.
I know this is a lot of detail, but I wanted to stress that this is a genuine sick leave where she has no choice but not to work. Anyway, she got a call from social welfare this week to tell her that the sick certs she has been sending in are no good, as she does not have enough stamps to claim illness benefit. And as she is not available for work, they will not be paying her for the other days either.
I did find something about student credits. She did work before college paying PRSI, entered college before 23, but she has only part time employment after college and it seems to have to be full time to claim PRSI credits during college. Besides even if she got these they would only be for part of the relevant year 2010, and they would be all credits and it looks 13 of the contributions have to be actually paid. She has additional medical costs (eg antibiotics for todays infection were €50) aswell as normal bills. Surely she is entitled to something? How can someone who has never worked be entitled to social welfare, but someone who is employed but simply cant work for a couple of weeks be entitled to nothing? I'm going to speak with citizens information on Tuesday, but was hoping someone here might give me an idea if there is anything at all, as she is really worried right now about how she is going to cope.
If anyone has any suggestions we'd really appreciate it.
She finished school, took a year off to work and save money, and then started college. She graduated in 2010, and struggled to find work so claimed social welfare. She finally got a part time job in September 2011, working 3 days and claiming for the others. A couple of weeks ago she was at the doctor as she got what the doctor thinks was some kind of bite (no one is sure) it caused severe allergic reaction and half of her shin blistered. After weeks of infection and a huge amount of pain, it was determined that the tissue in her leg was now dead, it couldnt heal and would continue to get infected. She was sent straight to hospital, they removed the dead tissue and had to do a skin graft. She has been on bed rest for the past 2 weeks, going back to hospital for dressing changes. It is now infected again and they cant tell her when she can go back to work.
I know this is a lot of detail, but I wanted to stress that this is a genuine sick leave where she has no choice but not to work. Anyway, she got a call from social welfare this week to tell her that the sick certs she has been sending in are no good, as she does not have enough stamps to claim illness benefit. And as she is not available for work, they will not be paying her for the other days either.
I did find something about student credits. She did work before college paying PRSI, entered college before 23, but she has only part time employment after college and it seems to have to be full time to claim PRSI credits during college. Besides even if she got these they would only be for part of the relevant year 2010, and they would be all credits and it looks 13 of the contributions have to be actually paid. She has additional medical costs (eg antibiotics for todays infection were €50) aswell as normal bills. Surely she is entitled to something? How can someone who has never worked be entitled to social welfare, but someone who is employed but simply cant work for a couple of weeks be entitled to nothing? I'm going to speak with citizens information on Tuesday, but was hoping someone here might give me an idea if there is anything at all, as she is really worried right now about how she is going to cope.
If anyone has any suggestions we'd really appreciate it.