John Cummins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this Commencement matter and the Minister of State for taking it on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, who is unavoidably at an event in Wexford. This is a topic on which we need to make further progress. I strongly believe that self-employed persons need to have a safety net if they become seriously ill. In recent years, we have made great strides by expanding access to a range of social insurance benefits to self-employed contributors. The payment of class S PRSI now gives contributors access to adoptive benefit, guardian's payment, the contributory invalidity pension, self-employed jobseeker's benefit, maternity benefit, parent's benefit, partial capacity benefit, paternity benefit, the contributory State pension, treatment benefit and the widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's pension. The benefits to which class S PRSI does not provide access are carer's benefit, health and safety benefit, illness benefit and occupational injuries benefit.

For the purpose of today's Commencement debate, I will focus on illness benefit, the eligibility criteria for which need to be changed as soon as possible. To demonstrate the need for changes to the eligibility criteria for illness benefit, I will highlight the case of a constituent of mine who has been diagnosed with cancer. Their partner is the sole carer for their child, who has significant additional needs, and my constituent was the sole earner for the family until their recent diagnosis. This individual has worked all of their life as an employee paying class A PRSI and has an unblemished record of 15 years in employment. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, they became unemployed for a short period of time and took up self-employed work for a period of more than six months because they could not afford not to be in work. They paid class S contributions over that period but, at the moment, these do not count towards eligibility for illness benefit and the 22 weeks of class A stamps that were paid in 2021 fall four contributions short. As a result, this person's claim for illness benefit has been refused. It is important to note that enhanced illness benefit was extended to self-employed persons during the Covid-19 pandemic. I believe now is the time to extend it further. Independent of the argument for extending illness benefit to self-employed persons who pay class S contributions, there is a strong case for building further flexibility into the system and allowing Department of Social Protection officials to look back over a longer period of time than the two years currently assessed for eligibility.If someone becomes very ill in 2023, as in the case I outlined, the two years which are examined are 2021 and 2020. If 26 contributions are paid in each of those two years, people have eligibility for illness benefit once they have paid 104 contributions in their lifetime. However, if they have 52 relevant contributions in 2020 and 22 relevant contributions in 2021, they are assessed as being four contributions short and have no eligibility. Equally, if people have 52 relevant contributions in every year preceding 2021 but only have 22 contributions in 2021, they are assessed as having no eligibility. That is an anomaly that needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Officials in the Department of Social Protection should be able to look back over a three-, four- or five-year period at the cumulative contributions made during that period when assessing eligibility.

In summary, I am looking for an extension of illness benefit to class S contributions. I am also looking for a new system of eligibility which examines cumulative contributions over a longer period than the two-year period currently in place.