Applying for Unemployment Benefit from aboard

E

eire

Guest
I left my job in June this year to live and look for work in Germany. I'm still looking and living off my ever decreasing savings. So I'm looking for other sources to help me.

I never registered as unemployed in Ireland since leaving the job. Am I entitled to claim for unemployed benefit and to have it back dated? I have all the PRSI contributions paid up.

I am also planning to claim my tax back. How is this affected if I claim for unemployment benefit? Would any benefit I received be taxable?

Cheers
 
I don't know about claiming Unemployment Benefit/Assistance on a backdated basis but I doubt that you would be able to do so. When you become unemployed it is up to you to register as soon as possible. If you defer this then I believe that payments are only considered from the date of registration. As you are now living and seeking employment in Germany it make be the case that you should enquire locally about your welfare entitlements possibly based on a transfer or credit for your Irish PRSI payments. OASIS might contain some useful info:
 
Do you speak German? If so, just head to the local Arbeitsamt (if you're not sure where it is, find the townhall and ask them) and enquire. I'm not sure what you can do if you don't speak English but I assume that they would have somebody who speaks decent English if they have a foreign section. I was never not working or studying when I lived there but I do know from friends that claiming for anything over there is becoming more and more difficult and they are apparently more and more strict all the time.

I assume that you've already done the whole Anmelden thing? In Germany I think it's usually worth it to have all the formalities gone through. Do you have health insurance or are you still on an E111 or the new insurance card?

Don't want to be too nosy, but whereabouts are you and what line of work do you want to do?

P.S. Am very jealous, would love to go back and live there again.
 
I've been going to German classes to improve my job prospects. There's no point living here if I'm not going to make the effort to learn the language. I'm going to use the Arbeitsamt but as my background is IT, they aren't the best for finding IT work, but I'll now consider any work.

I was only given a temporay residence permit until January or if I can find a job.

I was issued with a tempory E111 form which has since expired as the Health Board was meant to send the card out to my Irish address. I'm now trying to find out what happened to it.

I'm in Frankfurt and I love it here. It's what Dublin should be like for services. I don't need a car here and live in a spacious apartment for the same money for a cramp one in Dublin.

I'll ring the Welfare office today. I forgot yesterday was a bank holiday at home when I tried to call them.

I hate paperwork. :(
 
Re: Re: Applying for Unemployment Benefit from aboard

Hi eire,

You definitely need to be willing to learn the language, it'll make life much better. I'm not too sure about using the Arbeitsamt to find work but they are (as far as I remember) where you need to go to find out about claiming benefits etc. It's a bit more difficult in a city, I always lived in smaller towns so got to know the people in all the different places quite well because of popping in every now and then to ask questions. My German was good at the time but I didn't have a lot of experience speaking on the phone so I preferred to to everything face to face. But it's still probably good to go around the various places and get to know your way around officaldom while you at least have a bit of time to do so.

With regard to the temporary residence permit, if you're an Irish citizen then I wouldn't be keen on the "temporary" part of it. If I recall correctly, if you're going to be there longer than three months you have to apply for a residence permit but you'll only get a temporary one for six months/one year. And after that you go back, fill out more forms and get your permanent one - have vague memories of having to fill out all those forms when I was a student and would only be staying for six months and then next summer when I went back for good, being told I'd have to do it all again! They do like their forms in triplicate.

There are lots of employment agencies and temping agencies. It's pretty much the same as over here in that you need to just get your CV out to as many people as possible. Try monster and those type of websites as well. Can't offer any advice on CV writing for the German market because it is a while since I've had to do that myself. But you may need to get a load of passport photos to send in with any applications. If I think of anything that might be helpful I'll post again.

Good luck.
 
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