Social welfare payments and work

If you are getting certain social welfare payments, there are supports to help you become self-employed. Find out about the Back to Work Enterprise Allowance scheme.

Information on how work or training can affect your disability payment and any extra benefits you are getting.

Explains how your income from work and your spouse's income from work can affect your rate of Jobseeker's Allowance.

You may be able to work and get Jobseeker's Benefit. This document explains how work affects your Jobseeker's Benefit.

Tax and social welfare assistance is available for low income earners and their families. Information on available schemes and how to apply.

If your business has closed, or if you are self-employed but have less work and less income than before, you may qualify for a social welfare payment.

If you want to keep your social welfare payment and do some voluntary work, you must follow the rules set down by the Department of Social Protection.

If you have been unemployed and you get a new job, increase the number of hours that you work or take up a place on an employment support scheme, you may be eligible for a subsidised after-school childcare place for primary school children.

The Back to Work Allowance Scheme provided support to certain unemployed people (and others) when they returned to work. The scheme provided a continued partial payment of social welfare entitlements and 'secondary benefits'. Since 1 May 2009, the scheme is closed to new applicants.

The Part-Time Job Incentive (PTJI) Scheme allows certain long-term unemployed people to take up part-time work and get a special weekly allowance instead of their jobseeker’s payment.

The Part-Time Job Incentive Scheme for the Self-Employed (PTSE) is a new scheme for self-employed people getting a jobseeker’s payment or the COVID-19 Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) and earning over €480 per month.

This scheme provides a weekly payment to certain people who have lost their job and want to start their own business.