Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 603: To ask the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the rate of PRSI paid by taxi drivers; the reason social welfare benefits are restricted for people who are self-employed in this and similar professions; the measures he will introduce in order to increase the range of benefits which can be claimed under this category; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20605/07]

Martin Cullen (Waterford, Fianna Fail)
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Workers are insured under the Social Welfare Acts as either employed or self-employed contributors. Taxi drivers are categorised as self-employed contributors.

All workers, both employed and self-employed are obliged to pay PRSI contributions as a percentage of their personal reckonable income. These contributions provide entitlement to a range of contingency-based payments under various social insurance schemes — including pensions.

Self-employed workers — including taxi drivers — aged between 16 and 66 years and with reckonable income that exceeds the current insurable limit of €3,174 per annum pay PRSI contributions at Class S. The contributions are due at 3% of reckonable income, or €253, whichever is the greater.

PRSI Class S contributors are entitled to the following payments

Widow's or Widower's (Contributory) Pension;

Guardian's Payment (Contributory);

State Pension (Contributory);

Maternity Benefit;

Adoptive Benefit, and

Bereavement Grant.

The range of benefits to which different groups of workers may establish entitlement reflects the risks associated with the nature of their work and this is in turn reflected in the rate of contributions that they pay. Self-employed persons pay PRSI Class S contributions at a rate of 3% and are eligible for a narrower range of benefits than employees who, together with their employers, are liable for a total contribution of 14.05% under PRSI Class A.

Self-employed workers are not insured against short-term benefits such as illness and jobseeker's payments — these are only available to persons covered by PRSI Classes A, E, H and P. This reflects the need for coverage for various contingencies, the rate of contributions which self-employed persons pay, the practicalities of administering and controlling access to short-term payments and the annualised system of contributions that these same persons enjoy. A system of separate arrangements for employed and self-employed workers within a social insurance context is common in other European social protection systems.

There are no immediate plans to extend cover for short-term benefits to this group of insured workers. Any such measure would have significant financial implications and would have to be considered within a budgetary context. Consideration would also have to be given to an appropriate increase in the rate of the PRSI Class S contribution. Class S contributors who do not qualify for an insurance-based benefit may establish entitlement to assistance-based payments by satisfying certain conditions including a means test.