Jobseekers and Budget 2012 :
Although the basic standard rate of Jobseekers Benefit was untouched in the Budget – the government are still going to be reducing total payments by about €87 Million a year as a result of some new rule changes.
Currently – if a person is working part time – say 2 days a week – they can claim Jobseekers Benefit for the days they are out of work. At the moment this is based on a 6 day working week – so they could claim 4 days Jobseekers Benefit. (For a single person this would be €125.33 )
From July 2012 – the calculation will be based on a 5 day working week – so in the example above the claimant would get 3 days worth of Jobseekers Benefit instead of 4. For a single person – this would be about €112.80. (The daily rate is now higher than before ) This is a reduction of €12.53 a week.
To save 87 Million a year – which is about 1.67 Million a week – there must be a large number of Jobseeker claimants on part time work.
From 2013 – Sunday will be considered a day of employment.
At the moment – someone can work on a Sunday and it does not affect Jobseekers Benefit at all . From 2012 – if you work on Sunday you will lose a portion of your weekly Jobseeker’s Benefit payment for this day.