Social Welfare Act, 1952

• Permanent Page URL

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.