savings and social welfare payments

[marfsmal]

Hi ya's. First time poster here and am looking for info! Hope someone can help. I may need to sign on soon and I remember from before that they ask you what savings you have in the bank, credit union, etc. and I was just wondering if there is a cap on how much savings you can have in order to be able to claim? And secondly would pension savings be excluded from this section??
Thanks a mil.

 

[ClubMan]

Remember that benefits are PRSI linked and not means tested but allowanances are means tested. What will you be applying for? Details about the means test and how it applies to different allowance payments are available from www.welfare.ie.

 

[Welfarite]

The first 20k of savings/investments/capital is not counted. For the next 10k, you will lose a euro for every 1000 savings. The next 10k will mean a loss of 2 euro for evey 10,000 and you will lose 4 euro for ever 1000 on the balance. So if your means were solely from savings/investments/capital you would have to have almost 80k before you would lose the full JA.

 

[marfsmal]

Yeah I'm not sure that I can get the benefit due to the amount of stamps that I have so it's likely to be the unemployment allowance, and it's going to be while I'm setting up my own business as well so i was afraid that a few grand in savings would stop me from qualifying for this allowance..

 

[ClubMan]

JA - Condition: Satisfy a Means Test

 

[ClubMan]

So just to clarify, Jobseekers Benefit is not means tested in any shape or form?

Correct.

I just have to qualify via PRSI record, and nothing else comes into account eg husbands earnings etc?

Correct.

Did read the welfare site but wasn't 100% sure on that. Also, is it 15 months that is the max lenght of time you can stay on JB?

See PART 2: CLAIMS section (g).

JB may be paid for up to 156/312/390 days of unemployment. However, the duration of benefit varies according to the age of the person, the Class of qualifying contribution number of total contributions paid since entry into insurance and the circumstances of the claim (see below).

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