The charging of PRSI is based on an employee’s earnings in any contribution week in which earnings derived from insurable employment exceed €38. The number of contribution weeks in any year is relevant for determining the individual’s future entitlement to social insurance benefits and in particular entitlement to short-term benefits. Any proposal to alter the basis for establishing future entitlement to social insurance benefits from contribution weeks to overall annual income would represent a fundamental change to the existing social insurance system and would have significant cost implications which could only be considered in a budgetary context.
With reference to the impact of seasonal working on a person’s entitlement to Jobseekers Benefit it should be noted that Jobseekers Benefit is a short-term insurance-based payment which is designed to provide income support to insured workers during periods of involuntary unemployment. In order to qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit, a claimant must be unemployed for at least 3 days in 6, be available for and genuinely seeking work, and have suffered a substantial loss of employment. Jobseekers Benefit is not subject to a means-test and, therefore, income earned during an employment spell would not disqualify a seasonal worker from claiming Jobseekers Benefit during a subsequent period of unemployment, even if both the employment and unemployment episodes were to occur in the same year. Hence, Jobseeker’s Benefit is available to seasonal workers who suffer a substantial loss of employment, subject to satisfaction of the scheme criteria. So in the specific example cited by Deputy McHugh, the school caretaker who had worked eight months in the year would be entitled to claim Jobseekers Benefit provided inter alia that s/he is available for and genuinely seeking work and that s/he made sufficient PRSI contributions.
In relation to the scale of seasonal working, CSO data suggest that employment in the accommodation and food sector rises by between 5,000 and 6,000 between the first and third quarters of each year as a result of seasonal factors.
