Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 section 62

Entitlement to benefit

Section 62 sets out the conditions for entitlement to Jobseeker's Benefit, explains how payment amounts are calculated based on the number of unemployment days in a week, and provides for the Minister to prescribe cut-off dates for certain classes of claimants transitioning to new benefit arrangements.

• To qualify, a person must be under pensionable age (or born on or after 1 January 1958 and under 70 without a State pension), prove unemployment, meet contribution conditions, and have sustained a substantial loss of employment.
• A day only counts as unemployment if the person is capable of work, available for employment, and genuinely seeking but unable to find suitable work.
• Four days of interrupted employment within seven consecutive days form a "period of interruption of employment", and two such periods less than 26 weeks apart are treated as one continuous period.
• Payment rates vary from 10% to 16.67% of the weekly rate depending on how many unemployment days occur in the payment week, with special rules for short-time workers and the Minister's power to close applications for specified classes of person.