Short term BTWEA and medical card

Phoenix2011

Registered User
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Hi everyone. Long time lurker, first time poster here.

I was unemployed for a number of months and qualified for a medical card. I then decided to open my own business and qualified for the short term enterprise allowance. Somebody recently told me that I can keep my medical card for three years after returning to work. I was wondering if somebody could tell me if this is true and if self employment is considered returning to employment. I understand that I can keep my medical card for the duration if the short term enterprise allowance but can I keep it beyond that?

Thanks in advance!
 
I've never heard of 'keeping it for 3 years', but that's not to say it doesn't exist.

I understand that I can keep my medical card for the duration if the short term enterprise allowance...
Again, I'm not 100% on the details, but I believe there's a few caveats over this. I'm almost sure there's a cap on earnings associated with retaining the secondary benefits, somewhere in the low €3xx per week range?
 
There is provision for keeping your medical card for three years. You must have been in receipt of particular social welfare payments (eg, Jobseekers, Disability Allowance) for 12 months or more to qualify for this.

For details see [broken link removed]
 
Thanks for the replies folks. It looks like I wouldn't be automatically entitled to keep it for three years. However I will reapply as I dont think the business is going to make a whole pile of money this year.
 
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