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Martina Hennessy is a Chartered Accountant and runs a successful Mortgage and Financial Advisory company in Dublin.  Martina has over 10 years experience working in Financial Services.

Martina works with families in debt management and budgeting services.  She can advise on all areas of family finance aswell as maternity rights & benefits.

For more details on our Family Finance professional click here.

Some Recent Questions:

Q. My husband has lost his job and his employer has not told him if and how much of a redundancy payment he may be entitled to. He worked with the company for just over 2 years in fulltime employment.

A. Redundancy is where you lose your job due to circumstances such as the closure of the business or a reduction in staff numbers.

The Redundancy Payments Acts 1967-2007 provide a minimum entitlement to a redundancy payment for employees who have a set period of service with the employer.

You should be aware that not all employees are entitled to the statutory redundancy payment, even where a redundancy situation exists. To be eligible for a redundancy payment under the Acts, you must satisfy the following requirements:

• You must be aged 16 or over.
• You must be in employment that is insurable under the Social Welfare Acts. Full-time employees must be paying Class A PRSI. 
• You must have worked continuously for your employer for at least 104 weeks over the age of 16.

As your husband has worked with this employer for just over two years he will need to ensure he meets the continuous employment criteria in order to receive the statutory redundancy payment.

In deciding whether he has worked continuously for his employer for at least 104 weeks (2 years), the following situations will not break the continuity of your service:

• He was on adoptive leave, parental leave or carer’s leave
• He was off work through illness, agreed absence, holidays or lay off
• He was dismissed due to redundancy before reaching 104 weeks’ service and then taken back by your employer within 26 weeks of that dismissal
• He was re-employed within 4 weeks of dismissal by an associate company of your previous employer
• He has been voluntarily transferred to another employer and it is agreed that the continuity of your service will not be broken
• He was placed back in your employment under the unfair dismissals legislation
• He was on strike or locked out of your employment
• There has been a transfer of the business he works for to a new owner

Entitlements:

The statutory redundancy payment is a lump-sum payment based on the pay of the employee. All eligible employees are entitled to:

• Two weeks’ pay for every year of service over the age of 16 and
• One further week’s pay

The amount of statutory redundancy is subject to a maximum earnings limit of €600 per week (€31,200 per year).

Pay refers to your husbands current normal weekly pay including average regular overtime and benefits-in-kind, but before tax and PRSI deductions, that is his gross pay.

The statutory redundancy payment is tax-free.

If you receive an additional lump sum in compensation for the loss of employment, part of it may be tax-free, however the statutory redundancy lump sum is always tax-free.

Other links that may be useful to you:-

The Department of Enterprise Trade & Employment have an online calculator which may aid you in the calculation of your husbands redundancy entitlement. See - https://redundancy.entemp.ie/rpsportal/initialiseRedundancyCalculatorAction.do?locale=en

 The Revenue Commissioners have published a leaflet on taxation and redundancy.

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Q. I am 14 weeks pregnant and want to tell my employer, is there any formal process for doing so?

A. You can tell your employer verbally but you will need to also follow this up in writing notifying your employer of your intention to take maternity leave at least four weeks before your leave is due to start, stating the day on which your maternity leave is due to start. You should also have a certificate from your GP or consultant confirming that you are pregnant and you due date.

If your baby arrives early and is born more than 4 weeks before your due date, you will have fulfilled the notice requirements if you give your employer written notice within 14 days of the birth.

For information on maternity leave entitlements see Tots2Teens Maternity Rights information under the Mum to Be articles – http://www.tots2teens.ie/maternity-rights-maternity-leave-maternity-benefits