Two bureaucratic curiosities

[radegund]

1. From the Irish Citizens Information website
(Maternity Benefit page)

You will be disqualified (or banned) from receiving Maternity Benefit if during the time for which your Benefit is payable you engage in any employement [sic] or work other than domestic activities in your own home.

Ahahahaha! I'm not even going to touch that one. I'm just putting it out there, in all its pristine glory.

2. From the Social Welfare application form for Maternity Benefit, MB10, part 8

28. What is your spouse's or partner's full name?
29. What is their PPS Number?
30. Is your spouse or partner in employment?
31. What is their gross weekly income?
'Gross income' is their pay before tax, PRSI, union dues or other deductions.
If they are earning less than €280.00 a week, please state their gross weekly income and send in their last 6 payslips, as you may get a higher rate of payment.
...

Their? Is this an autopilot-style error (writer is used to drawing up forms to be used by both sexes), or does it mean that same-sex partnerships are somehow recognised by the Maternity Benefit people? (Genuinely curious: if you know, please tell me!)

Or is it all about the "may" in that last sentence? There's no indication of how they decide whether to pay you a higher rate (and it isn't mentioned on the Citizens Information site). I wouldn't be surprised if only married couples were entitled to it - and I'd be very surprised if same-sex couples were. But then why collect the information from everyone? If my spouse or partner earns more than €280.00 a week, it doesn't seem to have any bearing on my benefit entitlement. (I mean, for instance, do they cross-check this declaration against Niall's Revenue file?)

Hmmmmm.

Comments

[socmot.livejournal.com]

1. Twitch. Twitch. No, I can't bring myself to go there.

2. At the risk of being cynical, I'd say it is the former (used to writing for forms used by both sexes), but it is prepared for the eventuality of the latter - the form is written in such a way so as to save time in terms of editing it when civil partnerships are finally approved. I don't think it's a subtle recognition of same-sex relationships - I think they fall under single parent payments - and this form also says "spouse", as opposed to "partner".

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. In the UK the employer does all this - you just tell them you are pregnant by a certain ppint and then then calculate the benefit, pay it as they would your salary and claim it back from the government if they are entitled to. I assume it's different if you aren't a wage slave, but I don't know the details.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Interesting. So, it sounds as though partner's/spouse's income is irrelevant in the UK. I'm still puzzling over why it's relevant here. (They want the date of our marriage, too, which I also find weird.)

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

Yes, because it's basically your pay, which has nothing to do with your partner's income (though people still think as though it is, see the 20 billion times people don't believe I earn more than Alex, passim.) The date of the marriage? So they can make sure the baby was conceived the correct side of it? WTF? In truth, I suspect it's the basic paper pusher idea that the info they can get the better and they forget they shoudl make sure they really do need it.

[socmot.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing it's because the institution of marriage is given special preferences here and married couples are taxed differently or something along those lines.

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. My tax status is independent of my gross income, though, which is what the Maternity Benefit is based on.

It's probably still the case that although you can conveniently register your baby's birth while still in hospital, you can put the father's name on the birth cert only if you're married. If you're unmarried and want the father's name on the cert, you both have to go in person to the relevant office. A pointless and infuriating distinction, but again, irrelevant to the matter of Maternity Benefit, as such.

Bah bureaucracy.

[buzzy-bee.livejournal.com]

If you've been with your employer less than 6 months by the 25th week of pregnancy (i.e. you got pregnant before you started) you have to fill it all out yourself and claim Maternity Allowance which is the same as the lower rate of Statutory Maternity Pay. If, like me, you transfer between local authority employers whilst pregnant, you actually end up *better* off through this deal but 650 quid or so, because you end up getting paid more than your full pay the first six weeks!

[buzzy-bee.livejournal.com]

Er, that's in the UK, not Ireland.

puerile snigger

[merryhouse.livejournal.com]

pregnant by a certain ppint?

don't let any afp people see that.... ooops, you just have

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

In New Zealand they _do_ check against Inland Revenue (tax office) files, and against those held by other government agencies, too.

[ailbhe]

Low blood pressure is never an ongoing issue for me, somehow...

[radegund.livejournal.com]

No, indeed...

My colleague facetiously points out that grocery shopping technically falls outside the stated exemption :-)

[ailbhe]

Is my washing line in my home or in my garden?

[radegund.livejournal.com]

Well, exactly! I think, to be on the safe side, I'd better not hang out any laundry between November and May.