Written answers

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

Department of Social Protection

Social Welfare Benefits Eligibility

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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49. To ask the Minister for Social Protection for an update on the current situation regarding enabling jobseekers not on the live register to sign on for credits. [7505/16]

Photo of Joan BurtonJoan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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PRSI credited contributions (“credits”) are an integral part of the social insurance system. For the most part they are linked to having an underlying entitlement to a social welfare payment while temporarily detached from the labour force or having entitlement to statutory leave e.g. parental or maternity leave. The primary purpose of PRSI credits is to secure social welfare benefits and pensions of employees by covering gaps in insurance where they are not in a position to pay PRSI such as during periods of unemployment or illness for example.

In order to qualify for credits, a person must first have entered insurable employment – he or she must have paid at least one PRSI contribution as an employed contributor and, unless deemed to be exempted, must be be available for and genuinely seeking work. Subsequently, insured workers may be awarded credits if they claim a social welfare payment because they are out of work, or they are ill or incapacitated, or if they are engaged in certain training or education courses. When a person does not qualify for a payment, they may sign-on for credits provided they qualify for the award of credits.

The PRSI class at which a contributor paid his or her last PRSI employment contribution while working determines the type of credits which may be awarded. Those whose last paid PRSI contribution was at Class A may be awarded Class A credits. Those who paid PRSI, for example, at Class D (modified rate contributor) may only be awarded Class D credits.

If at any stage in their working life, a person has no PRSI paid or credited contributions for two full tax years, they cannot be awarded credits again until they return to work and pay PRSI contributions for at least 26 weeks. The rationale for this measure centres on the general principle that there should be a reasonable link between entitlement to benefit and a recent participation in the (active) labour force.

Individuals who do not qualify for a payment but are signing for credits are included in the Live Register statistics. The Live Register also includes all claimants for jobseeker’s benefit, excluding systematic short-time workers, applicants for jobseeker’s allowance excluding smallholders/farm assist and other self-employed persons.

With regard to the Live Register it should be noted that the register is not designed to measure unemployment. It includes part-time workers (those who work up to 3 days a week), seasonal and casual workers entitled to jobseeker's benefit or jobseeker's allowance. Unemployment is measured officially by the Central Statistics Office's Quarterly National Household Survey. A person is unemployed if, in the week before the survey, they were without work and available for work within the next 2 weeks.

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