Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 27 February 2014
142. Deputy Billy Kelleher asked the Minister for Social Protection if there is any mechanism by which a person who is currently unemployed can sign for credits where they failed to do so due to lack of knowledge of the system for over the two year period set down by her Department. [10191/14]
Amharc ar fhreagraCredited contributions (credits) are social insurance contributions which are awarded, under certain circumstances such as unemployment or illness, to an insured person without payment of a Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contribution. Their purpose is to help protect the future social insurance entitlements of insured persons by providing cover during periods when paid PRSI contributions are not due.
To qualify for unemployment credits, a person must be available for full-time employment and genuinely seeking such work, and customers are obliged to demonstrate this on an ongoing basis. Legislation provides that, where a person has no paid or credited contributions for a period of two consecutive years, they will not be awarded credits until they have a further 26 weeks of paid PRSI contributions.
Where a person makes an application for unemployment credits retrospectively, they must show good cause for the failure to claim at the relevant time. In this context, a statement that the reason for the delay was due solely to a lack of knowledge may not be considered sufficient to warrant an award of credits on ‘good cause’ grounds.
In addition, in circumstances where retrospective award of credits was being sought for a considerable period, there would be a considerable onus on the customer to demonstrate that they had satisfied all of the conditions during the period concerned and, in particular, to show that they had been available for full-time employment and had been making all reasonable efforts to find suitable full-time work on an ongoing basis throughout the period concerned.
In relation to the above, customers are advised to apply at their social welfare local office/Intreo office in order to ensure that their application is examined and to receive a formal decision on their claim.
