unemployment assistance, still waiting...

Hi there....

I submitted my claim for unemployment assistance back in Febuary and have not recieved a word on with is happening. I have gone to my social welfare office in Navan three times and all they say is its with the deciding officer and will hear shortly, they also say Co Meath is the busiest location for processing claims.

is this normal for a person to wait to hear one way or the other if im entitled to anything??

all replys welcome.

Hi Cavanman

From experience, it would be wise to ask them has a deciding officer been to your house? You may have missed his/her call.

When I questioned why my application was taking so long to process or for some sort of a decision to be made on it I was told that the deciding officer had been to my home and could not find me at that address. I never knew he/she was coming to my address. I was not there at the time they called so my application was dismissed and I was asked to reapply.

I have absolutely no income whatsoever coming into the house (living off savings) and have yet to hear from them regarding new application. This was applied for over six months ago.

Wishes - you could have asked to review/appeal that decision and probably not too late to do so - unless you were not living at that address at the time.

But if you were, you should ask them to decide and backdate decision to date of original and not subsequent application. It should be easy to prove you were living there at the time by way of bank statements, utility bills, correspondence, letter from doctor confirming address - basically anything showing your name and address on - current of course.

You would not be informed that the SW Insp was coming but you should have been told that they had tried to visit but you were not there. It will probably involve at least a review if not an appeal but worth pursuing.

And pending a decision if you have no other income and are not co-habiting with someone with income, you should go to your Community Welfare Officer, at your local HSE office and ask for basic payment (Supplementary welfare allowance). Naturally they will ask what you have been living on all this time - savings will be assessed as means over 5k.

This is basic info - you can check the rules and or guidelines in more detail on www.welfare.ie or www.citizensinformation.ie

Surely they would leave a note to say they called and missed you, etc. It is a disgrace that people are expected to exist on fresh air from February till June! What if you had no savings?

MandaC said:

It is a disgrace that people are expected to exist on fresh air from February till June! What if you had no savings?

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If you do not have money to live on, you apply for Supplementary Welfare Allowance from your CWO.
The DO does not call to houses. If the SW Inspector did call, they would notify you on that and the SW Office would have told you that.

hey wishes thanks for the reply!!

well all they tell me is its with the deciding officer in Navan or god knows where ever and it hasn't been decied on!! honestly they doin't expect you to be at home all the time....the whole ideal is to be out activally seeking work...at least they can call you on your phone and leave a message or call on your mobile to say they are calling!!

yeah im the same no income either....to be honest and im sure you'll agree its a true enditement of the crap public service we have and they have no regard for people that are struggling out there.

well lucky enough i have a few savings and small jobs im doing...but sure they only go so far!!

That's true.

Hi fababby, yes all documentation was supplied, for an appeal decision but was turned down again because I was never home when an officer was sent to my house. It was a case of sitting in 24/7 waiting on them which is not possible. My documentation proved I was living at that address and the house was mine but unfortunately they wanted to actually meet me sitting down in the property