David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Question 65: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if he has proposals to reverse an anomaly whereby, when the tax and PRSI year starts on a Saturday or Sunday, job sharers who work on a week-on week-off Monday to Friday basis, only receive 26 PRSI contributions within the year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6228/05]

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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The concept of a week of insurable employment is a central feature of the operation of the social insurance system and is defined in legislation. PRSI contributions are paid by employees and their employers at the relevant contribution rate for each week of insurable employment. These contributions progressively build towards entitlement to social insurance payments.

Work sharing arrangements such as three-day week or week-on-week off are entered into voluntarily and are agreed between an employer and an employee. In many cases the attendance pattern will overlap with the pattern of contribution weeks and work sharers will receive contributions in respect of 52 weeks, as is the case with full-time workers. Work sharers with a Monday-Friday week-on-week-off pattern will accrue different numbers of contributions depending on the alignment between their working week and the contribution week. Depending on the exact work pattern, work sharers may work for 26, 39 or 52 insurable weeks. However, the worker may be entitled to a higher number of contributions on the basis of their entitlement to public holiday pay as provided for under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. During weeks off the work sharer is not entitled to credited contributions as he or she is not unemployed. He or she may, however, be entitled to home-maker credits which maintain entitlement to contributory old age pension, providing certain criteria are fulfilled.

A social partnership working group, which examined a range of social insurance issues, identified work sharing as one of a number of areas which could potentially lead to employees having gaps in their contribution records. The working group's examination of this issue found that the longer a person work shares, the more likely it is to affect their pension entitlement, although the net effect of this may be relatively small; while it could lead to a reduced rate of old age contributory pension, the consequential loss in monetary terms would be small; and in the case of short-term benefits most employees are fully covered for these benefits, on foot of changes made to the contribution conditions for short-term benefits in 2001 to cater specifically for work sharing employees. While this improves the situation for the generality of work sharers, any period of unpaid leave could potentially give rise to a reduced level of social protection.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The working group, which included representatives of trades unions and employers, did not consider that the potential incidence of persons not qualifying for benefits for this reason would warrant a fundamental review of the weekly contribution basis which underpins the social insurance system.

However, in its final report, which will be published shortly, it suggested that the situation be monitored closely to ensure work sharers were not being unduly disadvantaged by the weekly-based system, especially if they sought to pursue other forms of family-friendly arrangements such as parental leave. The working group recommended that data on the impact of work sharing arrangements on social insurance coverage be collated to inform any future examinations and developments.

My Department has published an information booklet which specifically deals with the issue and the interaction of the pattern of weeks of insurable employment and attendance patterns. That booklet refers to the working patterns and years wherein employees would be awarded a reduced number of contributions.

There are no plans to change the system of weeks of insurable contributions, which is at the heart of the social insurance system, but I will continue to monitor the impact of work sharing arrangements on entitlement to social welfare payments.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. Does he agree that this creates serious inequity between workers and that job sharers are at risk of losing out regarding social welfare benefits simply because of their choice of work pattern?

I am aware that workers in the public sector have been made aware of this. Has the Minister done anything to inform people in the private sector of this anomaly? Has he examined the possibility of introducing a PRSI top-up for people who work on a week-on week-off basis from Monday to Friday? It must be remembered that the problem only occurs usually every eight years when 1 January falls on a Saturday or Sunday. It has been suggested that people should stagger their work week but that is not always possible — for example, it may impact on child care arrangements. Will the Minister agree that there is an anomaly and give serious consideration to introducing measures to ensure that anybody who is job sharing gets equal treatment? We need to encourage people into the workplace and offering job sharing arrangements is one way of doing that.

Séamus Brennan (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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There is no intention on the part of the State to put anyone at a disadvantage by virtue of their work pattern. However, I understand how that can happen. This is a complicated area. Social insurance is based on contributions, and the pattern of work can affect the number of contributions a person ends up with. The final report of the social partnership working group will be published shortly. It suggested that the situation be monitored closely to ensure work sharers were not unduly disadvantaged by the weekly based system, especially if they sought to pursue other forms of family friendly arrangements, such as parental leave. The working group recommended that data on the impact of work sharing arrangements on social insurance coverage should be collated to inform any future examination and developments.

The Department has published an information booklet which specifically deals with the issue and the interaction of the pattern of weeks of insurable employment and attendance patterns. There are no plans at the moment to do anything. We will await the reports and see whether any improvements can be made. A person who works part time two or three days a week could accumulate 52 contributions in the year, whereas a person who works week-on week-off, depending on the pattern of the week-on week-off arrangement, could end up with only 26 contributions in the year, even though each works a similar number of hours. Most people make their own arrangements if they can by having part-time working arrangements rather than working on a week-on week-off basis. I take the point that people need to be made aware they can do this.

We will further examine how the Department's booklet can be promulgated to a greater extent so that people will be aware that they can improve their ability to get contributions by the way they organise their work pattern. Whether they should have to do that is a broader issue. What is at the heart of the PRSI system is entitlement to contributions. Everyone should be aware that their pattern of work can affect the number of contributions they have if they are not working full-time. We will try to do more to get that message across. In addition, we need to examine the broader issue. I await the final report of the social partnership group.