asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will indicate the position of persons who are voluntary social welfare contributors when the pay-related benefits scheme comes into force.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Pay-related Benefit Scheme.
13.
Voluntary contributors in non-manual employment under contract of service will be affected from 1st April, 1974 by the abolition of the £1,600 remuneration limit, which will bring them into compulsory insurance. They will then cease to be voluntary contributors. Those employed in industrial, commercial and service type employment will become insurable for all benefits, and will be credited with sufficient contributions to enable them to satisfy the statutory contribution conditions for receipt of the short-term benefits such as disability and unemployment benefit. They will also come under the pay-related benefit scheme. Their title to pensions will not be affected by the change from voluntary to compulsory insurance. Those in permanent and pensionable employment in the public sector, for example, civil servants employees of local and public authorities, teachers, et cetera, will also cease to be voluntary contributors and will become compulsorily insurable only for widows' and orphans' pensions. They will not come within the scope of the pay-related benefit scheme.
Voluntary contributors who are self-employed will not, of course, be affected by the abolition of the remuneration limit, and will not come within the scope of the pay-related benefit scheme.
I thank the Parliamentary Secretary. May I now ask if a person who has been paying for the past three or four years as a voluntary contributor gets any extra benefit or will he stand in the same position as a man who has just become a contributor? Will he be allowed anything for his years of contributions?
He will be allowed continuity. He is continuing.
Will the old subscriber have any advantage over a man who joins at the start of the scheme?
He will have an advantage in so far as he will be credited with sufficient contributions to enable him to satisfy the statutory contribution conditions for receipt of the short-term benefits such as disability and unemployment benefit.
14.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if, for the purposes of the pay-related benefits scheme, he proposes to make regulations to enable him to inflate reckonable earnings to compensate for the fact that weekly earnings are calculated on the basis of the previous tax year.
Regulations will shortly be made which will include a provision to deal with this matter.
Does this mean that the Parliamentary Secretary will calculate benefit on the basis of an estimation of the current earnings rather than on the earnings of the previous year?
The regulations will shortly be made. I think the Deputy can take it that it will be on reckonable earnings.
15.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will ensure that widows will receive full benefit from the pay-related benefits scheme.
It is not intended to restrict the right of widows to the full benefit under the pay-related benefit scheme which will be available to other women in the same type of employment.
What percentage of gross earnings will a widow pay?
That is a separate question.
I cannot say offhand. I am sorry.
Will she pay the same percentage as any other worker?
She has an advantage at the moment in so far as she does not pay any contribution. The contribution is paid by the employer and the State carries the widow's part of the contribution.
I was wondering whether the Parliamentary Secretary intended doing something similar in relation to pay-related benefits?
The Deputy will be in a position to see all the regulations governing the scheme in the very near future.
16.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the date on which pay-related benefits will be made available to insured persons.
Pay-related benefit will be payable from Monday, 8th April, 1974.
The Parliamentary Secretary will remember that the former Minister for Social Welfare intimated that he hoped to introduce payments some time previous to the begining of contributions. Did the Parliamentary Secretary consider that or did he find that it was not possible?
No. As I am sure the Deputy will appreciate, all the former Minister's hopes were not realised in many aspects of life. All I can say is that it is intended it will be payable from Monday, 8th April.
I had hoped that the Parliamentary Secretary might realise some of them for him.
17.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will name the categories of compulsorily insured persons who will not be included in the pay-related benefits scheme.
Persons whose compulsory insurance under the Social Welfare Acts does not cover them for disability benefit and unemployment benefit will not be covered by the pay-related benefit scheme. They are, broadly, all pensionable civil servants, permanent and pensionable officers of local and public authorities, teachers, commissioned officers of the Defence Forces, members of the Garda Síochána and salaried staffs of a statutory transport authority, outworkers, other than male weavers, and part-time share-fishermen.
Agricultural workers were not included in the Act, but regulations to bring them into the scheme are before the Oireachtas for approval. The possibility of similarly extending the scheme to include women in private domestic employment and soldiers is being examined.
18.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will state the number of agricultural workers who will benefit from the pay-related benefits scheme.
There is a resolution on the Order Paper seeking approval of draft regulations extending the pay-related benefit scheme to agricultural workers. It is estimated that these regulations, if approved, will bring some 30,000 agricultural workers into the scheme.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary please state when it is likely that that resolution will be approved by the House?
I hope that it will be in the immediate future.
Within the next month?
Yes.
It is ordered for Tuesday.
Yes.
19.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the income level he has fixed up to which contributions will be levied for the purposes of the pay-related benefits scheme.
The Social Welfare (Pay-Related Contributions) Regulations, 1973, provide that pay-related contributions will be collected on reckonable earnings up to a ceiling of £2,500 in any income tax year.
20.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the estimated cost of the pay-related benefits scheme for the year 1st April, 1974, to 31st March, 1975.
It is estimated that expenditure on pay-related benefit will amount to approximately £10 million in the first year of the scheme.
21.
asked the Minister for Social Welfare the estimated revenue arising from the 3 per cent of gross income payable by the employer and employee for pay-related benefits scheme purposes in the year 1st April, 1974, to 31st March, 1975.
It is estimated that the 3 per cent pay-related contribution will yield £26.7 million in the first full year of collection. This includes some £14 million to cover the loss of contribution income from the reduction of 42p that it is proposed to make in the relevant flat-rate contributions.