Social Welfare (Insurance) Act 1952

PART I. Preliminary and General.

1 Short title.

1.—This Act may be cited as the Social Welfare Act, 1952.

2 Interpretation.

2.—(1) In this Act, save where the context otherwise requires—

“agriculture” includes dairy-farming and the use of land as grazing, meadow, or pasture land or orchard or osier land or woodland or for market gardens or nursery grounds;

“appeals officer” means a person holding office as an appeals officer under section 43;

“the appointed day” has the meaning assigned to it in section 72;

“beneficiary” means a person entitled to benefit;

“benefit” means benefit under this Act;

“benefit year” means, in relation to any person, such period of fifty-two or fifty-three contribution weeks as may be prescribed;

“contribution week” means a period of seven days commencing from midnight on Sunday, and “contribution year” means, in relation to any person, such period of fifty-two or fifty-three contribution weeks as may be prescribed;

“deciding officer” means a person holding office as a deciding officer under section 41;

“domestic service” does not include service which is rendered otherwise than in relation to an employer's household and place of residence;

“employed contributor” has the meaning assigned to it in subsection (1) of section 4;

“employer's contribution” has the meaning assigned to it in section 5;

“employment contributions” has the meaning assigned to it in section 5;

“entry into insurance” means, in relation to any person, the date on which he becomes an insured person;

“the Fund” has the meaning assigned to it in subsection (1) of section 39;

“incapable of work” means incapable of work by reason of some specific disease or bodily or mental disablement or deemed, in accordance with regulations, to be so incapable;

“increase” means, in relation to any benefit, an increase under section 26 or section 27;

“inspector” means a person holding office as an inspector under section 49;

“insurance cards” has the meaning assigned to it in subsection (1) of section 8;

“insurance stamps” has the meaning assigned to it in subsection (1) of section 8;

“insurable employment” means employment such that a person, over the age of sixteen years and under pensionable age, employed therein would be an employed contributor;

“insured person” means a person insured under this Act;

“the Minister” means the Minister for Social Welfare;

“orphan” means—

(a) a qualified child, being a legitimate child, both of whose parents are dead and who, where he has a stepparent, does not normally reside with the stepparent or a person married to and living with the stepparent, or

(b) a qualified child, being an illegitimate child, whose mother is dead and whose father is dead or unknown and who, if there is a surviving husband of his mother, does not normally reside with that husband or a woman married to and living with that husband;

“pensionable age” means the age of seventy;

“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations;

“qualified child” means a person who—

(a) is under the age of sixteen,

(b) is ordinarily resident in the State, and

(c) is not detained in a reformatory or an industrial school;

“regulations” means regulations made by the Minister under this Act;

“relevant contribution conditions” in relation to benefit of any description, means the contribution conditions for benefit of that description;

“voluntary contributions” has the meaning assigned to it in section 5;

“voluntary contributor” has the meaning assigned to it in section 4.

(2) For the purposes of this Act—

(a) a person shall be deemed to be over any age therein mentioned if he has attained that age and shall be deemed to be under any age therein mentioned if he has not attained that age;

(b) a person shall be deemed to be between two ages therein mentioned if he has attained the first-mentioned age but has not attained the second-mentioned age;

(c) a person shall be deemed not to have attained the age of sixteen years until the commencement of the sixteenth anniversary of the day of his birth, and similarly with respect to any other age;

(d) regulations may provide that, for the purpose of determining whether a contribution is payable in respect of any person, or at what rate a contribution is payable, that person shall be treated as having attained at the beginning of a contribution week, or as not having attained until the end of a contribution week, any age which he attains during the course of that week.

(3) Any reference in this Act to contributions shall, where the reference is without qualification, be construed, save where the context otherwise requires, as including both a reference to employment contributions and a reference to voluntary contributions.

(4) Regulations may, as respects any class or description of insurable employment, specify the persons to be treated for the purposes of this Act as the employers of employed contributors employed in that employment.

(5) References in this Act to an employed contributor's employer shall not be construed as including his employer in any employment other than insurable employment.

(6) Any question relating to the normal residence of a qualified child shall, for the purposes of this Act, be decided in accordance with subsection (2) of section 5 of the Children's Allowances (Amendment) Act, 1946 (No. 8 of 1946), and the rules under that subsection.

(7) Where a qualified child becomes adopted under any Act providing for the adoption of children (whether passed before or after the passing of this Act), for the purposes of this Act—

(a) the child shall thereafter be treated as if he were the child of the adopter or adopters born to him, her or them in lawful wedlock and were not the child of any other person and, if he was an orphan immediately before the adoption, as having ceased to be an orphan, and

(b) if there is one adopter only, in any application after the adoption with respect to the child of the definition of “orphan” contained in subsection (1) of this section, “the parent of whom is dead” shall be substituted in paragraph (a) of that definition for “both of whose parents are dead”.

(8) References in this Act to any enactment shall be construed as references to that enactment as amended or extended by any subsequent enactment.

3 General provisions as to regulations.

3.—(1) The Minister may make regulations—

(a) for any purpose in relation to which regulations are provided for by any of the provisions of this Act, and

(b) for prescribing any matter or thing referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed.

(2) Except in so far as this Act otherwise provides, any power conferred thereby to make regulations may be exercised—

(a) either in relation to all cases to which the power extends, or in relation to all those cases subject to specified exceptions, or in relation to any specified cases, or classes of case, and

(b) so as to make as respects the cases in relation to which it is exercised—

(i) the full provision to which the power extends or any less provision (whether by way of exception or otherwise),

(ii) the same provision for all cases in relation to which the power is exercised or different provision for different cases or classes of case, or different provision as respects the same case or class of case for different purposes of this Act,

(iii) any such provision either unconditionally or subject to any specified condition.

(3) Without prejudice to any specific provision in this Act, any regulations may contain such incidental or supplementary provisions as may appear to the Minister to be expedient for the purposes of the regulations.

(4) The following shall be subject to the sanction of the Minister for Finance:—

(a) regulations for the purposes of section 12, section 28, subsection (2) of section 37, section 60, section 66, or subsection (1) of section 69 of this Act,

(b) regulations for the purposes of section 8 of this Act so far as the regulations relate to the fees referred to in subsection (2) of that section,

(c) an order for the purposes of section 64, section 71, section 72 or section 83 of this Act,

(d) a draft of regulations under subsection (6) of section 4, subsection (9) of section 6 or subsection (4) of section 14.

(5) Regulations (not being regulations of which a draft is required by this Act to be approved of by resolution of each House of the Oireachtas) shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after they are made and, if a resolution annulling the regulations is passed by either House within the next twenty-one days on which that House has sat after the regulations have been laid before it, the regulations shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.

PART II. Insured Persons and Contributions.

4 Insured persons.

4.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act—

(a) every person who on or after the appointed day, being over the age of sixteen years and under pensionable age, is employed in any of the employments specified in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act, not being an employment specified in Part II of that Schedule, shall be an employed contributor for the purposes of this Act, and

(b) every person becoming for the first time an employed contributor shall thereby become insured under this Act and shall thereafter continue throughout his life to be so insured.

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Act, where a person ceases to be an employed contributor otherwise than by reason of attaining pensionable age and not less than one hundred and fifty-six employment contributions have been paid in respect of him, he shall, on making application in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed period, be entitled to become an insured person paying contributions under this Act voluntarily (in this Act referred to as a voluntary contributor).

(3) A voluntary contributor shall, if he becomes an employed contributor, cease to be a voluntary contributor.

(4) Regulations may provide for including among employed contributors persons employed in any of the employments specified in Part II of the First Schedule to this Act.

(5) Regulations may provide for—

(a) excluding particular employments or any classes of employment from the employments specified in Part I of the First Schedule to this Act, or

(b) adding to the employments so specified particular employments or any classes of employment,

and, where the Minister considers that any modifications of this Act are appropriate having regard to the purpose for which the regulations are made, the regulations may make those modifications.

(6) Where regulations are proposed to be made for the purposes of subsection (4) or subsection (5) of this section, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the regulations shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.

5 General provision as to moneys for benefits, etc.

5.—For the purpose of providing moneys for meeting the expenditure on benefit and making any other payments which under this Act are to be made out of the Fund, there shall be—

(a) contributions (in this Act referred to as employment contributions) in respect of employed contributors, each of which shall comprise a contribution by the employed contributor and a contribution (in this Act referred to as the employer's contribution) by the employer of the employed contributor,

(b) contributions (in this Act referred to as voluntary contributions) in respect of voluntary contributors, and

(c) payments out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.

6 Contributions generally.

6.—(1) Employment contributions shall be weekly contributions which shall be paid by employed contributors and employers of employed contributors at the rates specified in the Second Schedule to this Act.

(2) Voluntary contributions shall be weekly contributions which shall be paid by voluntary contributors who are under pensionable age at the rate of one shilling and sixpence for a contribution week in the case both of male voluntary contributors and of female voluntary contributors.

(3) Employment contributions and voluntary contributions shall be paid into the Fund.

(4) An employment contribution shall be payable for each contribution week during the whole or any part of which an employed contributor has been employed by an employer, but—

(a) where one contribution has been paid in respect of an employed contributor for any such week, no further contribution shall be payable in respect of him for the same week, and

(b) where no remuneration has been received for, and no services have been rendered by an employed contributor during, any such week, or where no services have been rendered by an employed contributor during any such week and the employed contributor has been in receipt of disability benefit or maternity allowance for the whole or any part of that week, the employer shall not be liable to pay any contribution either on his own behalf or on behalf of the employed contributor for that week.

(5) The employer shall, as respects any employment contribution, be liable in the first instance to pay both the employer's contribution comprised therein and also, on behalf of and to the exclusion of the employed contributor, the contribution comprised therein payable by such contributor.

(6) An employer shall be entitled, subject to and in accordance with regulations, to recover from an employed contributor the amount of any contribution paid or to be paid by him on behalf of that contributor, and, notwithstanding anything in any enactment, regulations for the purposes of this subsection may authorise recovery by deductions from the employed contributor's remuneration, but any such regulations shall provide that—

(a) where the employed contributor does not receive any pecuniary remuneration either from the employer or from any other person, the employer shall not be entitled to recover the amount of any such contribution from him, and

(b) where the employed contributor receives any pecuniary remuneration from the employer, the employer shall not be entitled to recover any such contribution otherwise than by deductions.

(7) Notwithstanding any contract to the contrary, an employer shall not be entitled to deduct from remuneration of a person employed by him, or otherwise to recover from such a person, the employer's contribution in respect of that person.

(8) Any sum deducted by an employer from remuneration under regulations for the purposes of this section shall be deemed to have been entrusted to him for the purpose of paying the contribution in respect of which it was deducted.

(9) Regulations may alter the rates of employment or voluntary contributions, but, where such regulations are proposed to be made, a draft thereof shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas and the regulations shall not be made until a resolution approving of the draft has been passed by each such House.

7 Exception from liability for, and crediting of, contributions.

7.—Regulations may provide for—

(a) making exceptions from the liability to pay contributions for any specified periods, and

(b) crediting contributions to insured persons for any specified periods, including, in particular—

(i) periods for which there is an exception from the liability to pay contributions by virtue of paragraph (a) of this section, and

(ii) the period between the beginning of the contribution year last preceding that in which they become insured persons and their entry into insurance.

8 Regulations as to payment of contributions.

8.—(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, regulations may provide for any matters incidental to the payment and collection of contributions and in particular for—

(a) payment of contributions by means of adhesive stamps (in this Act referred to as insurance stamps) affixed to cards (in this Act referred to as insurance cards) or otherwise, and for regulating the manner, times, and conditions in, at, and under which insurance stamps are to be affixed or payments are otherwise to be made;

(b) the issue, custody, production, and surrender of insurance cards and the replacement of insurance cards which have been lost, destroyed, or defaced;

(c) treating, for the purpose of any right to benefit, contributions paid after the due dates as paid on those dates or on such later dates as may be prescribed, or as not having been paid;

(d) the recovery (without prejudice to any other remedy), on prosecutions brought under or by virtue of this Act, of contributions.

(2) Regulations for the purposes of this section providing for the payment of contributions, at the option of the persons liable to pay, either—

(a) by means of insurance stamps, or

(b) by some alternative method, the use of which involves greater expense in administration to the departments of State concerned than would be incurred if the contributions were paid by means of insurance stamps,

may include provision for the payment to the Minister by any person who adopts any alternative method, and for the recovery by the Minister, of the prescribed fees.

(3) The Public Offices Fees Act, 1879, shall not apply in respect of the fees referred to in subsection (2) of this section and all such fees shall be collected and taken in such manner as the Minister for Finance directs from time to time and shall be paid into or disposed of for the benefit of the Exchequer in accordance with the directions of that Minister.

9 Return of sums paid in error by way of contributions.

9.—Regulations shall provide for the return, subject to any conditions, restrictions and deductions specified in the regulations, of any sums paid in error by way of contributions.

10 Preparation and issue of insurance stamps, etc.

10.—(1) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, insurance stamps shall be prepared and issued in such manner as the Revenue Commissioners, with the consent of the Minister for Finance, may direct, and the said Commissioners may, by regulations made by them, provide for applying, with the necessary adaptations, as respects insurance stamps, all or any of the provisions, including penal provisions, of the following enactments, that is to say, sections 21, 35 and 36 of the Inland Revenue Regulation Act, 1890, the Stamp Duties Management Act, 1891, section 9 of the Stamp Act, 1891, and section 65 of the Post Office Act, 1908, and may, with the consent of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, provide for the sale of insurance stamps through the Post Office.