Vol. 247 No. 8
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will furnish information in connection with the failure of employers to stamp social insurance cards in each of the past three years, as follows: (1) number of employers involved, (2) number of employees affected, (3) number of defaulting employers in liquidation, and (4) number of employers who avoided payment for stamps or benefit in whole or in part arising from the Statute of Limitations.
21.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will furnish certain information in connection with the failure of employers to stamp social insurance cards, which came to the notice of the Department of Social Welfare in 1970, stating in respect of each employer (a) number of employees involved, (b) if the employer went into liquidation, and (c) number of employees whose benefit is affected (including contributory pension).
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 20 and 21 together. As part of the information contained in the reply is in the form of a tabular statement I propose, again with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to circulate the reply with the Official Report. Following is the reply:
Instances of failure by employers to stamp insurance cards come to the notice of local offices of my Department and of the Department of Labour throughout the country in a variety of ways and no central record is kept of such cases the majority of which are dealt with and successfully settled locally. Only cases in which local officials fail to secure payment of contributions due are referred to headquarters for such further action as may be possible including, ultimately, legal proceedings. Firm information, therefore, of the total number of employers and employees involved over any particular period of time is not readily available and could only be obtained by a detailed examination of the individual files concerned at a cost in terms of official time and money which would not be warranted.
The number of defaulting firms which went into liquidation over the past three years and from which claims for arrears of contributions were made as well as the number of employees affected is as follows:—
|
Number of Employers |
Number of Employees |
|
|
1969 |
21 |
554 |
|
1968 |
6 |
76 |
|
1967 |
19 |
139 |
The number of employers who avoid payment of contributions or of arrears of benefit due by relying on the provisions of the Statute of Limitations is very small—not more than two or three each year. No special record is kept of such cases.
In the period 1 January, 1970 to 5 June, 1970 claims were lodged with liquidators in respect of contributions due by nine firms and in these cases the number of employees involved ranged between one and 55, the total being 125.
Cases of employees who lose benefit are dealt with on an individual basis and for this reason, and because some employers make good the lost benefit to the insured person, no firm figures are readily available of the total number over any particular period of time who fail to qualify, either temporarily or permanently, for benefit by reason of their employers' failure to stamp their social insurance cards. I can state, however, that in the current year to date the claims of four persons for contributory old age pension which had been affected by their employers' failure to stamp were dealt with. In three cases the arrears were recovered and pensions duly awarded.
