Moving home to Ireland

My Mother and Farther are Irish and living in the UK at the moment.

My mother is 62 years of age and is receipt of UK pension, and my father is 61 and has just lost his job with no redundancy. He is about to go onto UK pension credits bringing in a total of £189 per week.

This is nowhere near enough for them to live on, and I have advised them to sell up in the UK and relocate to Ireland. In the short term they can both come and live with me.

On checking the welfare website I cannot see what provisions the state would have for them both.

As I understand it both of them would need to apply for Jobseekers benefit as they are both under the pension age of 65.

Is this correct that despite my mother being a pensioner in the UK, she is classed as a working person here in Ireland and they would both need to apply for JB?

And as there would be a waiting period of a bout 9 weeks to qualify and obviously the 10 month welfare need to file paperwork they would need to claim supplementary benefit in the mean time?

Or is there something more straight forward for both of them?

Thanks for any help.

This may be of some help.

[broken link removed].

I don't think either of your parents would be entitled to Jobseeker's Benefit as they would need at least one full rate PRSI contribution paid to claim it here.

They may qualify for Jobseeker's Allowance but this is means tested (as is Supplementary Welfare Allowance). So if they sell their house in the UK, this will be taken into account for the means test.

Hope this helps

Coolatcj, it's unlikely your mum would be entitled to jobseekers benefit/ Allowance as she is already retired and getting a UK pension. What she can do is apply for a top up to the pension here. Your dad can sign on and apply for job seekers allowance as he is under retirement age. This will be means tested. I'm sure Welfarite ( our resident expert ) will advise when he sees your post.

Unemployment benefit or its equivalent is transferable between European countries for up to 13 weeks with restrictions.
There is more info on http://ec.europa.eu/eures/home.jsp?lang=en, and also on pensions.

Jobseeker's Allowance is the only Sw scheem open to them. This is subject to a means test and the UK pension(s) will be assessed plus any capital they have.If you father is claiming UK unemployment benefit, he can trasnfer up to 78 days of this for payment here while he is looking for work here. This must be arranged in advance of going and rememebr it will be paid at UK rate which is about 60 quid a week, I think.