If you lose your job and have worked for 5 years you'll get up to €450 a week under new rules

NEW RULES WILL kick in on Monday which will see a boost to Jobseeker payments for those that lose their jobs. 

Major changes to the social welfare system, which will link payments to the applicants’ work history, will commence on 31 March. 

The Pay-Related Benefit scheme puts Ireland in line with other EU member states. 

Ireland is one of the few countries across the European Union that up until now has not had a system in place that gives a degree of support that relates to what a person’s income was when they lost their job.

The plan, which was worked on for many years, will see unemployed people who have been working for the previous five years or more get a benefit of 60% of their salary to a maximum payment per week of €450 for the first three months of being unemployed. 

This will fall to 55% of their salary up to a maximum of €375 for the following three months. 

For the final three months, the person will get 50% of their earnings to a maximum of €300 per week.

The minimum weekly payment is €125.

A worker will get the payment for up to 6 months or 26 weeks, if they have been between two and five years of PRSI contributions from employment.

This is for 50% of their salary to a maximum of €300 per week. 

The idea behind the social welfare change is to “soften the cliff edge” if someone loses their job, former Social Protection Minister Heather Humphreys said. 

Currently, even if someone has worked for a company for 20 years, they are only entitled to the basic Jobseeker’s payment of 244.

If a person does not have enough PRSI contributions to avail of the new pay-related scheme they can still apply for Jobseekers’ Benefit which, as stated, is €244 per week. 

Source: Christina Finn, The Journal, 29th of March 2025.