Revenue says that someone on Jobseekers can't do voluntary work? unpaid work?

Sunday is a free day as far as SW are concerned. You can certainly work on Sunday and claim your full dole for the other 6 days.
 
Time said:
Sunday is a free day as far as SW are concerned. You can certainly work on Sunday and claim your full dole for the other 6 days.
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From my link earlier...

Sunday work and jobseeker's payments
From 21 February 2013 Sunday working is taken into account for Jobseeker's Benefit. You must be unemployed for 4 out of 7 consecutive days (including Sunday). If you work on Sunday you are considered to be employed for 1 day and 1/5th of your normal rate of Jobseeker's Benefit will be deducted from your weekly payment.

Even though the social welfare employment week now takes Sunday into account you are not considered unemployed for 7 days. You are considered to be unemployed for 6 days out of the 7-day social welfare employment week. This means that for each week that you are fully unemployed 6 days are deducted from the days remaining on your Jobseeker's Benefit claim.

For example a person who works 2 days a week would have 4 days deducted from the days remaining on their Jobseeker's Benefit claim.
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Someone just made an interesting observation to me - there were a very vocal group of protesters outside a particular tax office this morning. If any of those people are unemployed, could spending the day protesting be deemed not being available for and seeking work...?!

Likewise the guy who chained himself to the tax office in Dublin last week - he was hardly available for and seeking work, was he...
 
If you were to enforce the SW rules rigidly there would not be enough inspectors to deal with all the inquires they would have to make.
 
Time said:
If you were to enforce the SW rules rigidly there would not be enough inspectors to deal with all the inquires they would have to make.
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Indeed, I assume that's the reason for these rules witch aren't that sophisticated. Just broad strokes.
 
....
Sunday work and jobseeker's payments
From 21 February 2013 Sunday working is taken into account for Jobseeker's Benefit. You must be unemployed for 4 out of 7 consecutive days (including Sunday). If you work on Sunday you are considered to be employed for 1 day and 1/5th of your normal rate of Jobseeker's Benefit will be deducted from your weekly payment.

Even though the social welfare employment week now takes Sunday into account you are not considered unemployed for 7 days. You are considered to be unemployed for 6 days out of the 7-day social welfare employment week. This means that for each week that you are fully unemployed 6 days are deducted from the days remaining on your Jobseeker's Benefit claim.

For example a person who works 2 days a week would have 4 days deducted from the days remaining on their Jobseeker's Benefit claim.
....
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My head hurt reading this.

Why in the name of all that's holy did they have to put "including Sunday" when making reference to 7 consecutive days.

Where I come from it's not possible to have 7 consecutive days not including a Sunday. :confused:
 
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We haven't heard anything since and no more callers as far as partner is aware. It's being built on the farm he works on so he would of seen anyone most likely.
 
callybags said:
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My head hurt reading this.

Why in the name of all that's holy did they have to put "including Sunday" when making reference to 7 consecutive days.

Where I come from it's not possible to have 7 consecutive days not including a Sunday. :confused:
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Because previously Sunday was always disregarded, so for the specific purpose outlined you would not include Sunday when counting consecutive days of unemployment. Or something.
 
AlbacoreA said:
I can foresee the MIB from revenue recruiting you mannie ... just look into the light....
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You can't foresee things that have already happened, that's called hindsight... and who said it's a light? It's a 24-hour brainwashing session in conjunction with a cocktail of psychotropic drugs... I thought everyone knew that. ;)
 
ajapale said:
I think there is a distinction between voluntary work and unpaid work and have added "unpaid" work to the title.
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Maybe you should also change the title from Revenue to Social Welfare, as it's not revenue rules but social welfare rules.
 
Bronte said:
Maybe you should also change the title from Revenue to Social Welfare, as it's not revenue rules but social welfare rules.
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I thought about that but the op referred to a revenue site inspection so I left it.

Demented1 said:
Hi.

This morning someone from Revenue called to the site where I am building my own house.

He had questions about the block layer so we answered them all, name, address, total cost of blocks, how much we had given to date.

He asked who was doing the roof. My partner told him himself and my brother were there today putting up joists. My brother is on social welfare as he cannot get a job. There is no money to give my brother he was doing it as a favour

The guy from revenue said even though money is not changing hands that you cannot help out on a job when on social welfare.
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ajapale said:
I thought about that but the op referred to a revenue site inspection so I left it.
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Yes I get that but it was not revenue's business as far as I can tell. And the trouble only started with the OP contacted social welfare. And in his post No 4 he mentioned that the revenue guy said that he cannot share information with social welfare.

Demented, I suggest you listen to a pod cast of Pat Kenny earlier this week. They were talking about the fact that revenue are calling to building sites to see that everyone is legit. And it's good they are doing that.
 
This thread is everything that's wrong with the country, in a nutshell. Demented, get your brother back on site for heaven's sake. If another inspector comes around let your brother tell him he came down for a chat about the match last night, whatever. When two brothers cannot help each other build a house without a load of insignificant questions and one losing out on money, it's plain wrong. At what level of all those rules and regulations quoted does common sense kick in? The courts? Really?

I realise that buildings need to be inspected and maybe I'm naive about the level of deception taking place but surely if a carpenter on a self-build is proven as a brother of the owner's this cannot be termed "voluntary work". Not in the real world anyways. If the government put as much effort into generating work for your brother rather than questioning him about his helping his own flesh and blood in an area of his expertise, it would be time better spent.

Madness!
 
Back in the 80's the road outside the dole office used to be lined with builder vans and taxi dropping people off and collecting them from the sites. I expect it stems from that.
 
Padraigb said:
I don't see a real problem here other than one public servant taking too restricted a view of the situation. Your brother was not doing "voluntary work" in the sense for which the rules were drawn up: he was doing a favour for a family member. It can reasonably be presumed that if paid work became available, he would take it.
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Of course there is a problem! If this kind of "free work" was allowed, what would stop someone signing on the dole, working on building their house, or their brother's house or whatever and signing off once it's do, thus the taxpayer ends up financing part of the house!

Or how about working behind the bar in the family business a couple of afternoons a week so dad can but his feet up - for free of course since the son is on the dole - is that OK too?
 
It's a question of degrees really, isn't it - in your first example above that's clearly not on, but what about if he's already got no job, and his brother phones him and asks to help him lift a generator or other equipment on or off a trailer for 15 minutes - should he sign off then?

Or if having unloaded the trailer, he decides to stay for another half an hour and help his brother with some other heavy lifting, should he sign off then?

Or if it gets to lunchtime and he's still arseing around the place because it beats the hell out of Jeremy Kyle, should he sign off then?

It's the absolute definition of a grey area IMHO.
 
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