Top Tips for Maximizing your Income

Contacting MABS, the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, and budgeting correctly is an important step in ensuring your income goes as far as possible, however there are some other things you can try to ensure you maximize your income.

1. Make sure you are claiming all your entitlements:

If you have been made redundant make sure you have checked your entitlement to redundancy and have received payments from your employer for any arrears of wages, holiday pay and any pay in lieu of notice.

If your employer is no longer in business you may be able to make a claim for these monies for the Social Insurance Fund. Your local Citizens Information Office should be able to help you with this.

2. Family Income Supplement (FIS):

Family Income Support is a weekly tax-free payment available to employees with children. It gives extra financial support to low-income families.

Although people on Jobseekers Benefit or Jobseekers Allowance do not have an entitlement to FIS, if your spouse or partner is working they may be eligible to receive family income supplement. This is means tested and any income you receive from Jobseekers Benefit or Jobseekers Allowance will be taken into account when calculating the payment.

You are cannot apply for FIS if you are self-employed, as only employees are eligible for this supplementary payment.

If you are eligible for FIS, you may also be eligible for the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, administered by the Department of Social Protection, as an annual payment which helps families with children aged between 4 and 22 to meet the cost of uniforms and footwear for children attending school.

3. Claim Rent or Mortgage Interest Supplement:

Rent Allowance is paid to Social Welfare recipients who live in private rented accommodation but cannot afford the full amount of rent on their reduced income.

Similarly, Mortgage Interest Supplement is a short-term payment given to eligible Social Welfare recipients to help them to make their mortgage interest repayments. To qualify for both payments, you must satisfy a means test and also be in receipt of one of the Social Welfare benefits listed on the Citizen’s Information website. For more information on these supplementary payments, please visit www.citizensinformation.ie.

4. Claim Payment Protection Insurance:

You should check to see if you have Redundancy or Unemployment Payment Protection Insurance on any of your loans or debt, including mortgages, credit cards or personal loans.

If you believe you have cover, you should make a claim. If your claim is refused and you believe this to be unfair you should follow the insurer’s complaints procedure. If you are still not happy with the outcome you can take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman.