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Is there a Time Limit Collecting Social Welfare Payments

There is a time limit for collecting a social welfare payment at the Post Office. The following payments should be collected on the day that they are paid:

• Farm Assist - paid on Tuesday

• Jobseeker's Allowance - paid on Tuesday (usually, you have until the following Tuesday to collect it)

• Jobseeker's Benefit - paid on Wednesday

• Jobseeker's Benefit (Self-Employed) - paid on Wednesday

• Jobseeker's Transitional payment - paid on Thursday  

• One-Parent Family Payment - paid on Thursday

• Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme - paid on Friday

If you can't collect your payment on the day that it is paid, you should contact your local Intreo Centre.

Can You Nominate a ‘Temporary Agent’

If you are unable to collect your payment from the Post Office, you can nominate a temporary Agent to collect your payment. You can get a form for appointing a temporary Agent at your local post office. Depending on your circumstances, you can also nominate a permanent agent to collect your payment or apply to transfer your payment to your financial institution using form DIR PMT1.

How Much Leave Do I Get?

Click on this link and you will see the methods used for calculating Leave.

Do you have to be available for work and actively seeking work after 62 years?

To qualify for either Jobseeker’s Benefit or Allowance you must be genuinely seeking work and be available for full-time employment and these conditions continue to apply to all jobseekers.

There are some special administrative provisions in place for older jobseekers. These provisions aim to help people during the transition from the labour force into retirement. These provisions recognise that older jobseekers may have more difficulty re-training and re-entering the workplace if they lose their job when they are near to retirement age. If you have to retire at 65, you will not get a State pension until you are 66. However, you may still qualify for a benefit payment at 65.

As a general rule, Jobseeker's Benefit (JB) is paid for either 9 months or 6 months. However, if you are aged between 65 and 66 when your JB would normally end, you can continue to get it until the age of 66, provided you meet the PRSI requirements.

If you are claiming Jobseeker’s Benefit or Jobseeker's Allowance and are aged 62 or over, you will no longer be required to engage with the compulsory activation programmes and you will not be subject to penalty rates for non-engagement. (All other rules for Jobseeker's Benefit or Allowance still apply.)

However, if you are already engaged in activation (selected and referred for engagement) or if you are currently taking part in an activation programme (such as Community Employment, JobPath or training courses), you are expected to complete the programme. If you leave activation programmes before completion, your jobseeker's payment may be reduced.

You can voluntarily avail of a range of supports (for example, training or employment support programmes) from the Department of Social Protection.

In addition, most jobseekers aged 62 or over will be placed on a yearly signing arrangement with their Intreo Centre or local Social Welfare Branch Office (this means that they do not need to sign on regularly) and most will be transferred to Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) payments so payment can be made directly into their bank account. Certain categories of older jobseekers may be required to engage more frequently with their Intreo Centre or local Social Welfare Branch Office. For example, casual jobseekers of 62 and older must continue to submit weekly dockets of their work patterns.

How do you renew your medical card?

Medical cards and GP visit cards are issued for a period of time. Your card has a ‘Valid to’ date on it. The HSE will contact you when it needs to review your eligibility to see if it can renew your card.

The HSE will write to you to complete a medical card review. If you are no longer eligible for a medical card, it will assess you for a GP visit card. It will write to you to let you know the outcome.

The HSE may also send a letter and PIN, inviting you to use the online medical card application system at https://www.mymedicalcard.ie/. When you get on this, select 'Review my medical card'.

What Expenses Are Allowable for a Medical Card Application?

Allowable expenses

All allowable expenses help to increase the amount that you can earn and still qualify for a card. The types of allowable expenses you should include in your application are:

• rent payments and mortgage paymentts

• childcare costs

• travel to work costs

• maintenance payments

• net cost of private nursing home care

• mortgage protection premium

• life assurance for mortgage protection

What is a Section 317?

If a person is unhappy with the decision of an appeals officer, he or she may seek a review of the decision under section 317 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act, provided there are new facts or evidence that were not before the appeals officer who made the original decision.

A further option is available to people through section 318, whereby the chief appeals officer can revise the decision of an appeals officer if they decide that the appeals officer has erred in fact or law.

Overall, in 2023 there were 21,875 appeals finalised of which 11,000 were either allowed by an appeals officer or my Department revised its decision in favour of the customer; 9,380 were disallowed by an appeals officer and 1,420 appeals were withdrawn.

How do you get the Fuel Allowance?

To get Fuel Allowance you must:

• Live alone (or only with certain people listed below)

• Be getting a qualifying payment (unless you are 70 or over)

• Satisfy a means test

You must also live in Ireland. You cannot get Fuel Allowance if your heating costs are provided in full as part of your accommodation.

Live Alone

To get Fuel Allowance, you must live alone, or with:

• A spouse, civil partner or cohabitant who qualifies for an increase on your pension or social welfare payment, or is getting a qualifying payment in their own right

• Dependent children

• A person who gets Carer's Allowance or Carer's Benefit, and who is caring for you or for your spouse, partner or cohabitant, or for a qualified child dependant on a full-time basis

• A person getting short-term Jobseeker's Allowance (less than 312 days) or basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance (less than 364 days)

• A person getting a qualifying payment (for example, long-term Jobseeker’s Allowance) and who would be eligible for a Fuel Allowance in their own right

• A person aged 70 or over

• A person renting a room from you, where this doesn’t affect your entitlement to Fuel Allowance

• A person you provide accommodation to in your own home, and for whom you get the Accommodation Recognition Payment

What happens if more than one person in a household qualifies?

Only one Fuel Allowance payment is paid to a household. If more than one person in the household is getting a social assistance payment, you can decide who applies for Fuel Allowance.

If someone in the household is getting a qualifying social insurance payment, such as State Pension (Contributory) or Invalidity Pension, they should apply first (so a means test can be carried out on their income). Another qualifying person in the household can also apply for Fuel Allowance, but they must include information about the person getting a social insurance payment. If someone in the household is 70 or over, they should apply.

If you are 70 or over, you don’t need a qualifying payment to qualify for Fuel Allowance.

Social welfare payments are either based on your PRSI contributions (social insurance payments) or means-tested social assistance payments. The qualifying social insurance payments are:

• State Pension (Contributory)

• Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Contributory) Pension

• Incapacity Supplement under the Occupational Injuries Benefit scheme

• Invalidity Pension

• Guardian's Payment (Contributory)

• Death Benefit under the Occupational Injuries Scheme

• A pension or benefit from a country covered by EU Regulations or a country with which Ireland has a bilateral social security agreement (provided there is an equivalent Irish payment)

The qualifying social assistance payments are:

• State Pension (Non-Contributory)

• Widow's, Widower's or Surviving Civil Partner's (Non-Contributory) Pension

• Disability Allowance

• Blind Pension

• Deserted Wife's Benefit or Allowance

• One-Parent Family Payment (OFP)

• Guardian's Payment (Non-Contributory)

• Farm Assist

• Jobseeker's Transitional payment (JST)

• Supplementary Welfare Allowance

You can qualify if you have been getting Basic Supplementary Welfare Allowance for more than a year (this is 364 days over 12 months - it is paid on a 7-day week basis so 12 months’ payment is reached after day 364).

You qualify if you have been getting Jobseeker's Allowance for more than 312 days (over 12 months - it is paid on a 6-day week basis so 12 months’ payment is reached after day 312). Days on Jobseeker's Benefit (JB) and PUP can count towards the 312 days, if your JB or PUP was immediately before your JA claim.

You can keep your Fuel Allowance if you move to Jobseeker’s Allowance from One Parent Family Payment, Carer’s Allowance or Jobseeker’s Transitional payment.

If you are getting Jobseeker’s Allowance, and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is on a Community Employment (CE) scheme, they can be considered as a qualified adult on your payment if you apply for Fuel Allowance.

Employment or education support schemes

You can keep your Fuel Allowance if you were getting it before you started any of the following schemes:

• Back to Work Allowance

• Back to Education Allowance

• Back to Work Enterprise Allowance (BTWEA)

• Community Employment (CE)

• Rural Social Scheme (RSS)

• Tús

• CE, RSS and Tús

You can apply for Fuel Allowance at any point when you are on CE, RSS or Tús if you meet all the relevant qualifying conditions for Fuel Allowance. If you were getting a long-term qualifying payment before starting CE, RSS or Tús, you satisfy the qualifying payment requirement.

You do not qualify for Fuel Allowance if you are getting a half-rate payment in addition to a qualifying payment. This does not apply to half-rate Carer’s Allowance.