SWA Payments - Other Qualifying Conditions

SWA Payments – Other Qualifying Conditions

SWA Genuinely Seeking Work (GSW) – Jobseekers

If you have applied for a Jobseeker’s payment, are seeking a review of a decision refusing a Jobseeker’s payment or appealing a refusal/disqualification of a Jobseeker’s payment, the Department of Social Protection has the authority to seek proof of your efforts in ‘Genuinely Seeking Work’, when assessing your entitlement to a basic weekly SWA payment.

The Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 allows the Department of Social Protection to decide if a person is Genuinely Seeking Work, where that person would normally be expected to apply for/qualify for a Jobseeker’s payment. If they decide that you are not Genuinely Seeking Work, they could refuse your application for an SWA payment. If this occurs, you should take the following steps:

• ask for the decision in writing

• inform the CWS officer that you may consider requesting a formal review of their original decision

• inform the CWS officer that you may consider appealing the decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office if any review of the original decision is unsuccessful

If you seek a review of the original decision with the DSP or appeal the decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office, and you have no other additional means of income or support, you can apply for either a Basic Weekly Supplementary Welfare Allowance payment or Additional Needs Payment (ANP), pending the outcome of your review with the DSP or formal Appeal to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

SWA Penalty Rates – Jobseekers

Your Jobseeker’s payment may be reduced to a Penalty Rate if you fail, without worthy cause, to engage in Group or Individual Activation Meetings or suitable education, training or development opportunities, or specified employment programmes and Schemes as recommended by the Department of Social Protection (DSP) or any service acting on behalf of the DSP.

It is not allowed in the Supplementary Welfare Allowance Scheme for payment of SWA to replace any Penalty Rate reduction imposed. However, as with Jobseeker’s Allowance and Jobseeker’s Benefit, any 9-week activation disqualification only applies to the Personal Rate of SWA – the €230 portion paid to the main claimant. Where a disqualification is applied, SWA may be paid for qualified adults (IQA) and qualified children (IQC).

If your application for a basic weekly SWA payment is refused, suspended, or disqualified completely you should:

• ask for the decision in writing.

• decide if you wish to request a formal review of that decision.

• decide if you wish to appeal the original decision, or any review of the original decision if the outcome of the review is unsuccessful, to the Social Welfare Appeals Office (SWAO).

If an SWA payment has been refused, you have the right to formally appeal that decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. Before making a formal appeal to the Social Welfare Appeals Office, you can make a request for a ‘review’ to the Department of Social Protection asking for the original decision to be reviewed. If this is not successful, you can make a formal appeal to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. At each stage you should appeal a decision/request a review within 21 days of the date that the initial decision has been made.

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