Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 6 November 2012
435. Deputy Robert Troy asked the Minister for Social Protection her views on the reason persons that are self-employed and suffer from illness are treated differently by her Department and the Department of Health when, for example they cannot work due to their illness and require social protection assistance or when their illness is only newly recognised. [47963/12]
View answerSelf-employed persons are liable for PRSI at the Class S rate of 4% which entitles them to access long-term benefits such as State pension (contributory) and widow's, widower's or surviving civil partner's pension (contributory). Ordinary employees who have access to the full range of social insurance benefits pay Class A PRSI at the rate of 4%. In addition, their employers make a PRSI contribution of 10.75% in respect of their employees, resulting in the payment of a combined 14.75% rate per employee under full-rate PRSI Class A. (For employees earning less than €356 per week, the rate of employer’s PRSI is 4.25%).
Last year I established the Advisory Group on Tax and Social Welfare to meet the commitment made in the Programme for Government. The Advisory Group will, inter alia, examine and report on issues involved in providing social insurance cover for self-employed persons in order to establish whether or not such cover is technically feasible and financially sustainable. In addition the third Actuarial Review of the Social Insurance Fund, as at 31 December 2010, examined the long-term cost implications to the Social Insurance Fund (SIF) and the break-even contribution rates required to provide short term benefits to the self-employed.
Any proposals to extend such social insurance entitlements will have to be considered in a budgetary context, taking account of the finding of the Actuarial Review that the self-employed achieve very good value for money compared with the employed – when the comparison includes both employer and employee contributions in respect of the employed person.
Self-employed individuals who fall on hard times or are without work for some time due to ill health may establish entitlement to assistance-based payments. Those who have been previously self-employed can apply for the means-tested disability allowance, in the same manner as those who were not self-employed. In general, their means will take account of the level of earnings in the last twelve months in determining their expected income for the following year and, in the current climate, account is taken of the downward trend in the economy. As in the case of a non-self-employed claimant for assistance-based payments, the means of husband/wife, civil partner or co-habitant will be taken into account in deciding on entitlement to a payment. The Department of Health’s treatment of the self-employed who suffer from illness is a matter for the Minister for Health.
