Benefits for newly graduated student

[Enimhaol]

I am a 21 year old student who is graduating in the end of May, and I am due to give birth at the end of July. I will be unable to work between now and then due to the nature of my degree, as well as my living situation as I live with my parents with no access to public transport and I can’t drive. When the baby arrives I will no longer be able to live at home due to space issues and will have to move out. I will be moving to Austria to live with my partner who will still be in university until the end of 2026. I will have no income and have very little savings. I have no idea where or how to apply for funding to help pay for rent for the first few months until I can start working. His income will not be sufficient to support the three of us and I can’t get any support from my family as my parents are retired and only one has a pension. Any recommendations on how I can make money or what type of grant to apply for would be super useful! Thanks

If Ireland is anything like the UK you'll be waiting a while to even get your baby a passport (to register here can be 6 weeks, then another 4 for their first passport on average) so regardless you're looking at probably not being able to move until October at the earliest.

Why can't you stay living wherever you will need to be living from July to October-ish?

And previous posters are correct, you can stay for 90 days and then need to show you can provide for you and the baby in order to stay. How far in advance of that 90 day deadline you'd need to have a job to evidence that I don't know.

Good luck OP. Do you speak German, because it would be very hard to get a job in Austria without speaking fluent German? Could you make a life in Ireland with your baby and your partner join you once he either finishes his degree or could he transfer his degree to Ireland? I honestly think that's your best option. You would still be able to see your parents too even if you couldn't stay with them.

How do you travel to University when you don't drive and have no access to public transport? Is it OU? If not, most universities are in cities or decent sized towns where jobs exist. Are you able to work part-time alongside studying or have you been working in holiday times?

Do you speak German? Which country do you live in currently?

In your shoes, I would be seeking advice and support from the university and from local benefit and support services as they are the ones where they will have an obligation to support you if your parents make you homeless.

Even just to get a couple of hundred euro a month in child benefit for the baby you would need to have a certificate of registration as an EU citizen staying longer than 3 months (under § 9 NAG) proving that you either have a job or enough resources not to be dependent on the state.

You should also look up health insurance as it normally gets paid through your employer in Austria. I don't know how insurance without either a job or entitlement to benefits would work as your EHIC would only be valid for a temporary stay of less than three months. Voluntary enrolment in Austrian public health insurance costs about €500/mo each.

Good grief. Why should Austria have to take you both in, pay for your maternity and labour care, and then benefits when you’ve never contributed a penny in tax to their country? If somebody was planning to do this to the UK there would be outrage on here.

You need to stay put or claim benefits in Ireland. Not see whether another country offers you better freebies. You’ve made adult decisions and now have to support them yourself.

OP, be realistic.

Stay in Ireland/ UK wherever you are. If your parents evict you, go to the council for help.

Your boyfriend can join you here or stay long distance until his studies finish. Then he needs to get on to a job asap.

Totally agree.

And OP needs to be working now and when baby is 9 weeks. Not when 'a few months'.

Free movement is good but what will Austria require of you?

In the UK in free movement days one needed to might tight conditions around prospects of work to get benefits after, if I recall correctly, 3 months.

You could claim benefits in the UK as an Irish Citizen as the Common Travel Area in effect gives reciprocal rights.

Please don’t.

OP is a grown adult and has become pregnant in a very not-ideal situation. It’s time for her to act like an adult and take financial responsibility for herself and her child, not just hunt around for the most generous freebies.

Where are you planning to have your baby? Bear in mind timescales for registration and passport which may be more complicated if outside Ireland. Will your partner be with you?

Can’t you start working now until giving birth to get some extra cash before the baby is here?

@Enimhaol you really aren't being very responsible about this.

As an EU citizen, yes, you have the right to live and work in Austria.

You cannot, however just move there and begin claiming social security benefits for yourself and your child.

Think about this... you are quite literally intending to move yourself and a baby to another country with no housing in place, no means to support yourself or your child and no family around. You need to put on your big girl pants here and put your child first.

It is up to you to provide for your child, not the government of a country neither you or your child are citizens of.

If you are determined not to stay in Ireland, then it's up to your partner and yourself to provide for this child. If that means that he gives up study and finds full time work to support yourself both until you're back in work so be it.

@Enimhaol what is your ideal situation?

I read the below as: Not entitled to unemployment insurance because you haven't worked. Not entitled to Guaranteed Minimum Resources because you haven't lived there for 5 years.

https://www.euraxess.at/austria/information-assistance/unemployment#:~:text=Unemployment%20benefits%20consist%20of%20a,be%20covered%20by%20health%20insurance.
"Unemployment insurance is part of the compulsory social insurance system in Austria. It is administered by the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS) supervised by the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Protection.
Unemployment benefits consist of a basic sum, family supplement and various supplementary benefits. While in receipt of unemployment benefits you and your family members continue to be covered by health insurance.

The following applies for EU/EEA and Swiss nationals:
If you have already paid contributions in any EU/EEA country or Switzerland, this period will be taken into account for the fulfilment of the qualifying period and to determine the duration of the reference period, provided that you have been employed in Austria for at least one day and have paid the mandatory unemployment insurance prior to yourapplication for the unemployment benefits. After consultation with the public employment services of your country of origin you may under certain circumstances receive benefits from your country of origin for an approved period while already seeking employment in Austria. It is essential to register with your competent public employment service office prior to departure to Austria, stating that you are intending to seek employment in Austria. Under certain circumstances you may also be entitled to receive benefits attributable to insurance periods abroad.

Qualifying period:

• At least 52 weeks of contribution paying employment over the past 24 months from the point of application must be demonstrated (for persons over the age of 25 upon initial claim), or
• At least 28 weeks of contribution paying employment over the past year from the point of application must be demonstrated (applies to additional claims).

For third country nationals:
There are only five countries where bilateral agreements on social security include unemployment benefits: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Israel, Republic of Macedonia, North Montenegro and Serbia. Please note that in most cases the agreement only settles addition of insurance periods to determine the qualifying periods.
Please note that in the special case of educational leave(Bildungskarenz, minimum duration two months, maximum duration twelve months)no wages or salaries are paid. Instead, employees are entitled to an educational allowance from the Public Employment Service Austria (AMS) in the amount of the unemployment benefits they would have otherwise received. For more information please consult the brochure "Living and working in Austria".

Details at the Main Association of Social Security Institutions (Hauptverband der österreichischen Sozialversicherungsträger): www.hauptverband.at (in German)
Publication "Zwischenstaatliche Beziehungen Österreichs im Bereich der sozialen Sicherheit auf einen Blick" (.pdf, in German)

Guaranteed Minimum Resources
Guaranteed minimum resources (Mindestsicherung) are providedfor persons who haveno reasonable funds to pay for their living costs or those of their family members. Guaranteed minimum resources are intended to support individuals who can no longer pay for their living costs on their own. An amount stipulated every year corresponds to costs for covering the required costs of food, clothing, body care, heating and electricity, furnishings and other personal needs such as appropriate social andcultural involvement as well as housing needs. Guaranteed minimum resources benefits are only available when no other sufficient financial means (such as income, social security benefits, alimonies, etc.) or assets are available.
EU and EEA (European Economic Area) nationals, respectively, are only unrestrictedly entitled to guaranteed minimum resourcesif they are in Austria as employees or have lived here for more than five years. Nationals of third countries are only eligible to receive guaranteed minimum resources if theyhave been legally residing in Austria for more than five years. The amount of the guaranteed minimum resources will be determined individually by each federal province."

@RatedDoingMagic hospitals don't have duty social workers.

It is not the hospitals job to find you housing.

https://employment-social-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies-and-activities/moving-working-europe/eu-social-security-coordination/your-rights-country-country/austriaen

Social Security Benefits in Austria, via the EU website.

Usually in the EU, your employer would register you in order to receive a social security number, but this will not be the case if you are not working.

I believe that Austria is quite strict on people registering their residence (within a matter of days of arrival, even for EU citizens) so you need to find out where your local mayor's office or local authority will be and turn up there with a copy of your rental contract/proof of address, and ID.

If you are not working, the other route to register for a social security number is via the government healthcare provider, but being a registered resident needs to be done before this.

Do you speak German? Contacting your local mayor's office/local authority directly will be your best source of information, especially as Austria is a federalised state so will have regional rules.

*Edited for typos.

You really need to research before making this decision. Students are not normally entitled to benefits and this will be further complicated by him being an international student. A quick search on Google suggests you would only be entitled to child benefit there if you are legally and permanently resident

MN is not the expertise you need. You can go on gov.uk and go thru various portals to see if you are eligible in UK (if u are in uk). Don’t know if u are currently living with parents or what. As far as Austria … Hungary …. EU. You will not find answers here.
Whererver u are having maternity care - perhaps they will be able to link u in w local resources.

Try your luck having baby in hospital & telling them u are homeless with no money but that sounds risky.

There are reciprocal benefit agreements between EU countries as I used to deal with import/export of benefits years ago when we were part of the EU.

Please note, the rules may have changed.

In order to claim the reciprocal benefits, you used to have to register with the unemployment agency in your country, then notify them that you were moving and getting the relevant forms to take to the unemployment agency in the new country. It was only for contribution based benefits so you had to qualify for those in your country. In the UK that would mean having worked for most of the two previous tax years (I think it was something like FT work for 39/52 weeks).

You then follow the rules of the new country's unemployment office and they notify your home country to release the payment each fortnight/month or what.

As it's not in one based, the 3 month residency didn't apply. However if you don't qualify for your home country's contribution based benefit the your only option would be to claim income based in Austria and then you would have to satisfy the Habitual Residency test which includes having to be self sufficient for the first 3 months of residency (minimum).

Realistically, I don’t see how you can do this without the support of your parents. Sorting something out with them might be your only option and certainly easier than finding a job in a country where you don’t speak the language and with a newborn in tow.

It is an awful lot easier working whilst doing a degree (any degree) than it is working when having a newborn baby.

As an EU citizen you can only move to Austria if:

Under EU law, EU citizens have the right to reside in Austria for more than three months if:
they are employees or self‑employed workers in Austria; or
they have sufficient resources and comprehensive sickness insurance cover for themselves and their family members not to need to claim social assistance or compensatory allowances during their stay; or
the principal aim of their stay is to obtain a qualification, including a professional qualification, from a state school or legally recognised private school or educational establishment and they have sufficient sickness insurance cover and sufficient resources for themselves and their family members.

The right wing Government in Austria has been tightening the rules on immigration, especially for those not paying taxes

Do you speak much German?

Oh dear you really haven't thought this through have you, you may want to start by finding UK/Irish expat groups in Austria eg. on Facebook and then you will quickly see that it is not as easy as just pack and move and receive benefits there or in fact anywhere in EU.

Stay wherever you are, it won't be easy for your boyfriend to come to the UK either after Brexit unless he gets a sponsored employment or you support him, which obviously you won't be able to. What about Hungary?

In UK. In Uni funding / student loan questions they ask if you have dependents and some Uni housing has “family” accomodation.

Ask BF about this.

He could be eligible for grant, bigger loan or housing.