Living with your parents and Jobseeker's Allowance

Introduction

When you apply for Jobseeker's Allowance, your income is assessed to find out whether you will qualify for the payment. If you are 24 years of age or under and you are living with a parent or a step-parent in the family home, your parents' income is also taken into account. The Department of Social Protection call this an assessment of the ‘ benefit and privilege' you get from living with your parents.

This means, while you may have no income, your parents' income can affect the amount of your social welfare payment. If however your only means are from the benefit of your parents' income and those means are calculated as less than the personal rate of Jobseeker's Allowance, the minimum weekly payment you are entitled to is €40.

Some people may still refer to 'benefit and privilege' as 'board and lodgings'.

Rules

To be assessed for benefit and privilege you must:

• Be 24 years of age or under
• Be living with a parent or step-parent in the family home
• Have applied for Jobseeker's Allowance (JA) or Supplementary Welfare Allowance (SWA).

If you are married or co-habiting with your spouse/partner and living with your parents you will not be assessed for benefit and privilege, even if you are under 25 years of age.

If you have lived elsewhere in Ireland (or abroad) independent of your parents for at least 3 years, benefit and privilege is assessed as €7.

How to calculate benefit and privilege

Since 30 April 2008, a new method is used to calculate benefit and privilege for Jobseeker's Allowance claims (see below).

Calculating benefit and privilege

Step 1, add together your parents' net income from all sources. (Net income is your gross income less income tax, PRSI, income levy, private health insurance contribution, superannuation and union dues).

For example, your parents' net income includes income from:

• Insurable employment
• Self-employment
• Community Employment (CE) schemes and FAS Training Allowances
• Maintenance payments
• An occupational pension
• All social welfare payments with the exception of the following: National and Smokeless Fuel Allowance, Child Benefit and Respite Care Grant.
• All Health Service Executive Payments with the exception of the following: Domiciliary Care Allowance, Blind Welfare Allowance, Mobility Allowance and Foster Care Alllowance.
• Net income from property other than the family home. So, for example, rental income (less expenses such as mortgage repayments, insurance costs and repairs) is taken into account .

Step 2, deduct the following from your parent's net income to get their assessable income:

• Rent or mortgage repayments
• Standard weekly allowance of €600 for a two-parent family or €470 for a one-parent family
• €30 for each child up to 18 years of age and for all children over 18 years in full time education. However, you cannot deduct €30 for a child who is getting a social welfare payment in his/her own right. For example, if there is a child 17 years of age and getting Disability Allowance in the household, you cannot deduct €30 from parental weekly income for this child. The child's social welfare payment is not included as income.

Step 3, after you have calculated your parents' assessable income, get 34% of this income. Only 34% of your parents assessable income is taken into account and assessed as benefit and privilege.

An example showing how to calculate benefit and privilege from 30 April 2008

Example 1

A one-parent family with 4 children. Two of the children are still in school, one child in a FAS apprenticeship and the claimant (that is, the person aged 24 or under who is applying for Jobseeker's Allowance).

Parent's net weekly income €590
Less deductions from net income * €630
Total -€40

* Less weekly mortgage repayments of €100 and weekly disregard for children of €60 (€30 x 2 children) and one-parent standard weekly allowance of €470 (€100 + €60 + €470 = €630).

In this case, parental income of €590 is less than the total amount of deductions, which is €630. Therefore, parental income is assessed as NIL and will not affect the Jobseeker's Allowance claim.

Example 2

If we take the same situation of a one-parent family with 4 children. Two of the children are still in school, one child in a FAS apprenticeship and the claimant (that is, the person aged 24 or under who is applying for Jobseeker's Allowance). But we increase the parent's income to €800 per week, benefit and privilege is calculated as follows:

Parent's net weekly income €800
Less deductions from net income* €630
Total €170

* Less weekly mortgage repayments of €100 and weekly disregard for children of €60 (€30 x 2 children) and one-parent standard weekly allowance of €470 (€100 + €60 + €470 = €630).

34% of the above total of €170 = €58 (rounded up from €57.80)

Maximum weekly Jobseeker's Allowance payment €150 (2010) less €58 = €92 (see 'Note' below)

Amount of Jobseeker's Allowance payable to claimant = €92

Note: People under 25 get an age related rate of Jobseeker's Allowance. More information on the JA rates for people under 25 can be found in our document on Jobseeker's Allowance.