Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 8, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:

“Amendment of Principal Act (disregard from income of participant contributions paid under section 59(1) of the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024)

15. (1) Section 227 of the Principal Act is amended, in the definition of “weekly family income” (amended by section 11 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011), by the

insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph (aa):

“(ab) any participant contribution deducted from emoluments (within the meaning of Part 3 of the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024) in accordance with section 59(1)(b) of that Act,”.

(2) Part 4 of Schedule 3 to the Principal Act is amended, in Rule 1(2)(b)(v), by the substitution of the following subclause for subclause (I):

“(I) An amount equal to the sum of the first €75 of any additional income (within the meaning of Rule 2) and 25 per cent of so much of that additional income as exceeds €75, when that additional income has been reduced by the aggregate of—

(A) any allowable contribution referred to in Regulation 31 of the Income Tax (Employments) Regulations 2018 (S.I. No. 345 of 2018),

(B) any amount deducted from reckonable earnings under section 13 and regulations made under section 14, and

(C) any participant contribution deducted from emoluments (within the meaning of Part 3 of the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024) in accordance with section 59(1)(b) of that Act,”.

(3) This section comes into operation on 1 January 2026.”.

It excludes employee auto-enrolment contributions from the assessment of income for the purposes of the working family payment and for supplementary welfare allowance means arrangements insofar as it relates to recipients of rent supplement in particular. Currently, employee contributions to other types of pension or retirement savings schemes are excluded from an assessment of their income.

The intention of the amendment is to have consistency in the treatment of pension and retirement savings contributions within the social welfare system. Specifically, the amendment aligns the treatment of a participant or employee contributions to My Future Fund with that of employee contributions to occupational pensions, to personal retirement savings accounts, to additional voluntary contributions and to retirement annuity contracts. By introducing this amendment, we are ensuring that people in receipt of the working family payment or rent supplement will not be negatively affected because they have been enrolled under the auto-enrolment system. Other payments that may be impacted in a similar way do not require amendments to primary legislation and I will be making regulations to address these payments in the future.