Can I claim for my spouse?

[poopin]

Hi,

I am claiming Jobseekers Benefit since end of Jan 2008 while actively looking for a new position. I am in receipt of a reduced payment rate of €127.70 due to my earnings as I was only working part time and I am not receiving a increase for either my husband or 2 children due to my husband's earnings being over the limit of €400 per week. My husband is having a operation next week and this will see him out of work for up to 3 months and because he is paying PRSI at class S as he is self employed he is not entitled to illness benefit or jobseekers benefit etc.

Can anyone advise if I could now get my claim for jobseekers benefit re-assessed and claim for my husband and our 2 children now that he will not be working due to this operation? I contacted our local welfare office but they would not confirm and said that when the operation is over to send in a sick cert. along with confirmation from the hospital that my hubby can not work for up to 3 months and they will assess the situation then, at that stage I'm thinking it could be a 3-4 wks before we get an answer with only a €127.70 a week to tide us over.

Any advice would help?

 

[Welfarite]

Your problem is that your husband is self-employed and to calcualte his "weekly income" (to see if he is under the threshold for you to be paid QAA (Qualified Adult Allowance)), they normal will look at previous year's accounts. What theya re saying to you is that he would have to be out of work for a substantial time (three months) before they could consider re-calculating his income.

An alternative option might be a visit to your CWO to see about claiming SWA for the period of illness. Other posters here could tell you more about that one.

 

[allthedoyles]

When ones circumstances change , so does ones claim. So inform SWO accordingly .