Self employed...signing on

[Lak]

I have lived in Ireland for ten years (u.k.) and been self employed all this time, paid my tax and stamp during this period. From the beggining of the year things have gone from slow to nothing so went to sign on two weeks ago. It transpires that I am entitled to absolutely nothing as my wife is full time employed, average earnings.
It seems unfair that a family of five with a mortgage is entitled to nothing yet a single man (a friend of mine) recieves 350 a week in benefits and housing aid for a rented four bed house.
I am told I have a right to appeal but would very much appreciate it if anyone could tell me if I would be wasting my time or is this how things work....if my wife simply gave up her job we would receive far more in benefits and help with a mortgage than we currently have as income, not of course that she would and for the record this is the first time I have ever had to sign on in over twenty five years.
Considering that the Dole queues according to todays news have expanded by 8,500, most being in the construction sector just what is the true statistic when the thousands upon thousands of construction workers that are feeling the pinch are not even allowed to sign on the live register because of their self employed status.

 

[Welfarite]

You will have gotten a breakdown of how your means were assessed when they refused you Jobseeker's allowance. If you think that the figures that they assessed are not correct, you should appeal. Have you loooked into the possibility of getting FIS? See here

 

[Lak]

Thank you for your reply welfarerite, things slowly on the up now .....and having checked with the link you gave it seems we are at exactly the cut off limit for a family with three children.
However it seems they calculate a weekly income as grosse to include the tax paid on my wifes wage as though that too were disposable income, and, my current income, as being calculated from my previous years earnings, which seems bizzarre as the whole point of signing on is because I would not have any current income at all...what was earned in 07 was spent in 07 ????

 

[Welfarite]

You could appeal it if you think that they should not have calculated income from self-employment and they might revisit the whole thing. Having a reasoned chat with the deciding officer might help. They always have to take previous year's accounts ijn self-employment as otherwise they have no way of projecting income for this year. If you tell teem how bad things are they might allow some leeway for a few months and review it then.