Ms Mary Kennedy:

I am not. I am simply saying that the question the actuarial review group considered was specifically in respect of what the cost would be to provide cover to the self-employed. Essentially, that is where those figures have come from. What the actuarial review group examined was specifically in respect of providing additional cover for the self-employed.

Deputy Butler referred to another matter. The point is the advisory group report went to Government. The Minister has said it will feed into the deliberative process and the question of how we might develop a new scheme of invalidity pension for the self-employed. Deputy Butler raised the issue of how that might be done and whether we should increase the contribution from the current figure of 4%. The figure of 1.5 percentage points was a reference to the actuarial review. What the actuarial review stated, however, was that to provide the current State pension to the self-employed, the rate should be 15% rather than 4%, which is what they currently pay. We asked the actuarial review group to examine the cost of providing jobseeker's benefit in addition to the State pension and, additionally, the cost if we were to provide invalidity pension as well. The figures came to 15% for the State pension, 16% plus for the jobseeker's benefit and 17.3% to provide State pension contributory plus jobseeker's benefit plus invalidity pension. The figure of 1.5 percentage points should not be taken in isolation from the actuarial review group conclusions.

Deputy Butler made a point about making an increase to provide additional benefits to the self-employed. Deputy Butler suggested if that was going to be done, it should be done on a phased basis. That is something we will be considering as part of any examination of the advisory group suggestions in respect of invalidity pension. The group recommended that jobseeker's benefit was not warranted but that consideration should be given to providing invalidity pension for the self-employed. The next question is what that should cost and what any such scheme would look like.

The self-employed are not the same as employees. A person must prove incapacity for work and the question is how that would apply. Invalidity pension relates to longer-term incapacity. It means being permanently incapable. If we go down that road, the next challenge is how to work at developing a scheme that would meet the different situations of a self-employed person compared with an employee. If an employee is out sick or permanently incapacitated, she has no capacity to earn an income. Since there are so many different types of self-employed people, the question is how to develop such a scheme.