Illness Benefit

Rules

You must apply for Illness Benefit within 7 days of becoming ill. No payment is made for the first three days of illness.

Social insurance (PRSI) contributions

To get Illness Benefit you must have:

• At least 104 weeks PRSI paid since you first started work

And

• Have 39 weeks PRSI paid or credited in the relevant tax year (a minimum of 13 weeks must be paid contributions*)

Or

• Have 26 weeks PRSI paid in the relevant tax year and 26 weeks PRSI paid in the tax year immediately before the relevant tax year.

*If you do not have 13 paid contributions in the relevant tax year, the following years can be used to meet this condition:

• The 2 tax years before the relevant tax year
• The last complete tax year,

Or

• The current tax year.

The Relevant Tax Year is the second last complete tax year before the year in which your claim is made. So, for claims made in 2012, the Relevant Tax Year is 2010.

How long is Illness Benefit paid?

If you have 260 weeks PRSI paid since you first began work, you may be entitled to Illness Benefit for as long as you are unfit for work and you are under 66. Since January 2009, if you have 260 or more PRSI contributions you can get Illness Benefit for a maximum of 2 years. This change does not affect people who were getting Illness Benefit before this date.

If you have between 104 and 259 weeks PRSI contributions paid, you may be entitled to Illness Benefit for up to 52 weeks. At the end of this period, an extra 13 PRSI contributions must be paid (or a lesser number if it brings the total PRSI contributions paid up to 260) in order to requalify for Illness Benefit.

Transfer from Jobseeker's Allowance or Invalidity Pension to Illness Benefit

If you were getting Jobseeker's Allowance or Invalidity Pension immediately before claiming Illness Benefit, you do not need to have 13 paid contributions. However, if you do not have the required 13 paid PRSI contributions in the Relevant Tax Year you only qualify for a reduced rate of payment.

Jobseeker's Allowance and Illness Benefit

If you are getting long-term full rate Jobseeker's Allowance (15 months) and become ill, you can get the maximum rate of Illness Benefit. You must have at least 260 PRSI contributions paid at any time and at least 39 credited in the Relevant Tax Year. You do not need to have 13 PRSI contributions recently paid. In this case, you can get Illness Benefit for as long as you are unfit for work and under 66 years of age. Since January 2009, if you have 260 or more PRSI contributions you can get Illness Benefit for a maximum of 2 years. This change does not affect people who were getting Illness Benefit before this date.

If you are getting long-term Jobseeker's Allowance (15 months) and have at least 104 PRSI paid contributions since you first started work and at least 39 credited in the Relevant Tax Year or, you don't need to have 13 PRSI contributions recently paid to qualify for Illness Benefit. You may not however qualify for the maximum rate of benefit. The maximum period of time you can claim for is 52 weeks.

Transfer from Carer's Benefit or Carer’s Allowance

If you transferred from Illness Benefit to Carer's Benefit or Carer's Allowance and then back to Illness Benefit, you will get Illness Benefit at a rate not lower than that you had in payment.

Work and Illness Benefit

From 13 February 2012, Partial Capacity Benefit replaces the previous exemption arrangements where people on Illness Benefit could get permission to work part-time (known as an exemption) for rehabilitative or therapeutic purposes and keep their full social welfare payment.

Those who currently have this permission will not be affected until their permission comes up for review. At that stage, the exemption will no longer be available to them but they have the option of applying for Partial Capacity Benefit. There is no requirement that the work a person does while on Partial Capacity Benefit has to be for rehabilitative or therapeutic purposes.