Worksheet: Jobseeker's Allowance and income from work

This worksheet aims to help you find out how taking up part-time or casual work will affect your weekly Jobseeker's Allowance.

Income from work is assessed as means and can affect your Jobseeker's Allowance payment. Other sources of income or means can also affect your Jobseeker's Allowance, for example, maintenance, benefit and privilege, cash income and capital (including savings and investments). In this worksheet we are only looking at how income from work can affect your payment.

A person is entitled to Jobseeker's Allowance (JA) only for periods of unemployment. You must be unemployed for at least 4 days in a period of 7 consecutive days to get JA. More information on the qualifying criteria is available in our document on Jobseeker's Allowance.

Jobseeker's Allowance (JA)

Jobseeker's Allowance weekly rate _________
(Your age can determine
your maximum weekly rate
Find your rate in our
document on Jobseeker's Allowance)

Add Child Dependant Increase
(Add an increase for each qualified child dependant,
see 'Step 2' below)

Add Increase for a Qualified Adult
(You will not get an increase for +________
a dependent spouse/civil partner/cohabitant, if
your spouse is getting a payment in their own right, see 'Step 2'
below)

Total (maximum Jobseeker's Allowance)_________

Less weekly means from work_-______
(Go to extra information below to help you calculate your weekly means from work.)

Less spouse's/civil partner's/cohabitant's weekly means from work_-_______
(Go to extra information below to help you calculate your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant's weekly means from work.)

Total weekly Jobseeker's Allowance payment €________

Use Steps 1-5 to calculate your weekly means from work.

Step 1: Assessable weekly earnings

Find your assessable weekly earnings.

The following items are always deducted from your gross earnings to get your assessable earnings:

• PRSI Contribution
• Union dues
• Superannuation
• PRSA (Personal Retirement Savings Account)
• AVCs (Additional Voluntary Contributions)

Step 2: Find out if your assessable weekly earnings are over the limit

Before you calculate how much JA you can get, you must find out if your weekly means are more than the maximum JA payment for your situation. The maximum Jobseeker’s Allowance payment includes the personal payment and any increases for an adult dependant and dependent children. If your means are halved, an increase for a qualified adult is not included in the maximum Jobseeker’s Allowance payment for your situation and you will only get a half-rate increase for each qualified child.

In this step you are not calculating the actual amount of JA you will get, you are just checking to see if you have any possibility of getting JA.

To do this take your assessable weekly earnings from Step 1 and deduct €20 per day for each day you have worked up to a maximum of €60. Next get 60% of the balance. This is assessed as your weekly means.

Assessable weekly earnings - €20 = total x 60% = weekly means from work.

Your means are halved if your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is:

• Getting a social welfare payment (except Child Benefit, Disablement Pension, guardian's payment, Supplementary Welfare Allowance, Domiciliary Care Allowance and half-rate Carer's Allowance)
• On a Further Education and Training (FET) or VTOS course and getting an allowance in his or her own right.

If your means are halved because of the above, you will not get an increase for a qualified adult but you will get a half-rate increase for each qualified child when finding the maximum Jobseeker’s Allowance payment for your situation.

Community Employment: If you are getting Jobseeker's Allowance and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant starts a Community Employment (CE) Scheme in 2023, the maximum Jobseeker’s Allowance payment will not include an increase for an adult dependant, but it will include a full-rate increase for each qualified child. Half of your combined means are taken into account in the means test.

If your weekly means are less than the maximum Jobseeker’s Allowance payment for your situation then go to Step 3 and start to calculate the actual amount of JA you will get.

Step 3: Average daily earnings

Now that you know you are entitled to a JA payment, you can start to calculate the rate of your JA payment.

Calculate your average daily earnings: to do this get your total weekly assessable earnings from employment and divide by the number of days you worked that week.

Total weekly earnings ÷ number of days worked = average daily earnings.

Step 4: Daily means from work

Calculate your daily means from work.

To do this, you must disregard any income not taken into account. Income not taken into account is €20 for days worked. Next get 60% of the balance. This is assessed as your daily means.

Average daily earnings - €20 = total x 60% = daily means from work.

Step 5: Weekly means from work

Multiply your daily means by the number of days worked (including Sunday). If you get paid for a public holiday and don't work that day, it will be included in the number of days worked.

Daily means from work x number of days worked = weekly means from work.

Your means are halved if your spouse/civil partner/cohabitant is:

• Getting a social welfare payment (except Child Benefit, Disablement Pension, guardian's payment, Supplementary Welfare Allowance, Domiciliary Care Allowance and half-rate Carer's Allowance)
• On a FET or VTOS course and getting an allowance in his or her own right.

If your means are halved because of the above, you will not get an increase for a qualified adult but you will get a half-rate increase for each qualified child.

Community Employment: If you are getting Jobseeker's Allowance and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant starts a Community Employment (CE) Scheme in 2023, the maximum Jobseeker’s Allowance payment will not include an increase for an adult dependant, but it will include a full-rate increase for each qualified child. Half of your combined means are taken into account in the means test.

To calculate your spouse's, civil partner's or cohabitant's weekly means from work first calculate his/her assessable earnings.

The following items are always deducted from his/her gross earnings to get assessable earnings:

• PRSI (Contribution)
• Union dues
• Superannuation
• PRSA (Personal Retirement Savings Account)
• AVCs (Additional Voluntary Contributions)

Deduct €20 per day from your spouse's/civil partner's/cohabitant's assessable earnings for each day worked up to a maximum of €60 (including Sunday).

Next get 60% of the balance. This is assessed as his/her weekly means.

Assessable weekly earnings - €20 per day (maximum 3 days) = total x 60% = weekly means from work.

Your means are halved if your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant is:

• Getting a social welfare payment (except Child Benefit, Disablement Pension, guardian's payment, Supplementary Welfare Allowance, Domiciliary Care Allowance and half-rate Carer's Allowance)
• On a FET or VTOS course and getting an allowance in his or her own right.

If your means are halved because of the above, you will not get an increase for a qualified adult but you will get a half-rate increase for each qualified child.

Community Employment: If you are getting Jobseeker's Allowance and your spouse, civil partner or cohabitant starts a Community Employment (CE) Scheme in 2023, the maximum Jobseeker’s Allowance payment will not include an increase for an adult dependant, but it will include a full-rate increase for each qualified child. Half of your combined means are taken into account in the means test.

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