Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 October 2017
254. Deputy Catherine Connolly asked the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the cost in a full year of reducing the number of waiting days for entitlement to illness benefit from six to four days; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44521/17]
View answerIllness benefit is a short term social insurance payment made to insured people who are unable to work due to illness. Normally payment of illness benefit begins from the seventh day of the illness; no payment is made for the first six days. These are known as “waiting days”. Waiting days have been a long standing feature of social insurance schemes and are a feature of similar social security schemes in many other countries.
Based on claimload data available to the Department, the estimated cost of reducing the number of waiting days to illness benefit from six to four days would be approximately €11 million, for current valid claims. Additional costs would most likely arise from additional claims for shorter illness periods but not made because of the current waiting day provisions. However the Department does not have data on such potential claims in order to reliably estimate the extent of these claims.
I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.
