S.I. No. 124/1976:

SOCIAL WELFARE (PAY-RELATED BENEFIT) REGULATIONS, 1976.

SOCIAL WELFARE (PAY-RELATED BENEFIT) REGULATIONS, 1976.

The Minister for Social Welfare, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 3 of the Social Welfare Act, 1952 (No. 11 of 1952), and sections 1, 4 (as amended by the Social Welfare Act, 1976 (No. 6 of 1976)), 8 and 15 of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Benefit) Act, 1973 (No. 2 of 1973), hereby makes the following Regulations:--

1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Benefit) Regulations, 1976.

(2) These Regulations shall be construed as one with the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Benefit) Regulations, 1974, ( S.I. No. 16 of 1974 ) and may be cited therewith as the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Benefit) Regulations, 1974 and 1976.

(3) These Regulations shall come into operation on the 21st day of June, 1976.

2. In these Regulations--

"the Act of 1952" means the Social Welfare Act, 1952 ;

"the Act of 1967" means the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1967 (No. 18 of 1967);

"the Principal Regulations" means the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Benefit) Regulations, 1974;

"employment contribution" has the meaning assigned to it by the Act of 1952 and includes, where appropriate, a redundancy contribution within the meaning of section 27 of the Redundancy Payments Act, 1967 (No. 21 of 1967) and a health contribution within the meaning of section 2 of the Health Contributions Act, 1971 (No. 21 of 1971) at the rate specified in section 3 (1) (a) of that Act;

"reckonable earnings" has the meaning assigned to it in section 1 of the Social Welfare (Pay-Related Benefit) Act, 1973;

"the Acts" means the Social Welfare Acts, 1952 to 1976;

"weekly rate of unemployment benefit" includes any increase of that rate under sections 26 or 27 of the Act of 1952;

"period of entitlement to unemployment benefit" means a period of 156 days or 390 days in accordance with the provisions of section 16 of the Act of 1952 and section 5 of the Act of 1967 as amended by section 11 of the Social Welfare Act, 1976 .

3. These Regulations shall not apply to a person who, for the time being, is employed on short-time whereby he works on a lesser number of days in a working week than is normal to the working week in that employment and whose basic earnings are reduced as a result.

4. (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of article 7 (2) and (3) of the Principal Regulations, where in a period of entitlement to unemployment benefit which commences in respect of a person on or after the coming into operation of these Regulations the sum of--

( a ) the weekly rate of unemployment benefit payable under the Acts and

( b ) the weekly rate of pay-related benefit payable and

( c ) the weekly equivalent as determined by the Revenue Commissioners of the refund of income tax, if any, which is paid as a result of the unemployment in the said period of entitlement

exceeds eighty-five per cent of that person's average net weekly earnings or £50, whichever in the lesser, the weekly rate of pay-related benefit payable to him shall be reduced by the amount of such excess and the amount of pay-related benefit, if any, payable to him for that period shall be calculated on the basis of such weekly rate as so reduced:

provided that

(i) where the weekly rate of unemployment benefit payable or the sum of the said weekly rate and the weekly equivalent as determined by the Revenue Commissioners of any refund of income tax arising from the said unemployment paid to that person equals or exceeds eighty-five per cent of his average net weekly earnings or £50, whichever is the lesser, pay-related benefit shall not be payable to him and

(ii) where an initial payment of a refund of income tax arising from the said unemployment has been made to a person it shall be assumed for the purposes of this sub-article that that person will continue to receive the weekly equivalent as determined by the Revenue Commissioners of such refund until his entitlement to such refunds is exhausted or he sooner resumes employment.

(2) For the purposes of sub-article (1) of this article a person's average net weekly earnings shall, subject to sub-article (3) of this article, be calculated

( a ) by--

(i) ascertaining his reckonable earnings from the commencement of the income tax year in which the period of entitlement to unemployment benefit commenced to the first day of the said period, or

(ii) in the case of a person who did not receive reckonable earnings on or after the last day of the first week of the income tax year in which the period of entitlement to unemployment benefit commenced, ascertaining his reckonable earnings in the income tax year preceding that in which the period of entitlement to unemployment benefit commenced, and

( b ) by subtracting the amount of income tax deducted from those earnings and the employee's portion of the amount of pay-related contributions payable in respect of those earnings, and

( c ) by--

(i) dividing the remainder by the number of complete weeks from the commencement of that income tax year to the first day of the said period, or

(ii) in the case of a person whose entry into insurance under the Acts occurs after the commencement of the income tax year in which the period of entitlement to unemployment benefit commenced, dividing the remainder by the number of complete weeks from the date of his entry into insurance under the Acts to the first day of the said period, or

(iii) in the case of a person who was employed outside the State (other than a person who continued to be insured under the Acts while so employed) during the income tax year in which the period of entitlement to unemployment benefit commenced, dividing the remainder by the number of complete weeks during which he was insurably employed under the Acts from the commencement of that income tax year to the first day of the said period, or

(iv) in the case of a person who did not receive reckonable earnings on or after the last day of the first week of the income tax year in which the period of entitlement to unemployment benefit commenced, dividing the remainder by 52, and

( d ) by deducting from the quotient the employee's portion of the employment contribution which would be payable by the person if he were still in the employment in which he was employed prior to the first day of the said period.

(3) The amount of benefit paid under the Acts or the amount of unemployment assistance paid under the Unemployment Assistance Acts, 1933 to 1976 to a person, other than a person referred to in clause (iii) of subparagraph (c) of sub-article (2) of this article in respect of a period of at least six days of proved unemployment or duly notified incapacity for work in the whole or relevant part of the income tax year referred to in sub-paragraph (a) of sub-article (2) of this article shall be added to the amount ascertained under that sub-paragraph but the amount of benefit paid in respect of incapacity for work for any period in respect of which that person also received reckonable earnings shall not be so added.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Social Welfare this

18th day of June, 1976.

BRENDAN CORISH,

Minister for Social Welfare.

The Minister for Finance hereby consents to the making of the foregoing Regulations.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Finance

this 18th day of June, 1976.

RICHIE RYAN,

Minister for Finance.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

The Social Welfare (Pay-Related Benefit) Regulations, 1974, provide that the total amount payable to a person by way of flat rate benefit and pay-related benefit cannot exceed the amount of his reckonable weekly earnings.

These Regulations alter the method of calculating the maximum payment in the case of a person who becomes fully unemployed on or after 21st June, 1976. In such a case, if the sum of the flat-rate unemployment benefit, pay-related benefit and any income-tax refund which a person receives as a result of being unemployed exceeds 85% of a person's average net weekly earnings or £50 whichever is the lesser the amount of pay-related benefit will be reduced or withheld as appropriate. A person's average net weekly earnings are his average weekly earnings in the income tax year in which he becomes fully unemployed reduced by his weekly payments in respect of income tax, pay-related and employment contributions.

The Regulations also provide that average net weekly earnings will be based on earnings in the preceding tax year where a person has received no earnings after the 11th April in the income tax year in which he becomes fully unemployed.

Special provision is also made to take into account as earnings the amount of benefit paid to persons who were sick or unemployed in the income tax year on which their average net weekly earnings are based.