Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005

Loss of benefit due to employer's default.

[1993 s220(1)]

259.—(1) Where an employer has failed or neglected—

(a) to pay any employment contribution which under Part 2 he or she is liable to pay in respect of an employed contributor in his or her employment, or

(b) to comply, in relation to any such employed contributor, with any requirement of Part 2 or regulations which relate to the payment or collection of employment contributions,

and by reason thereof the employed contributor or any other person has lost, in whole or in part, any benefit to which he or she would have been entitled, the contributor or other person shall be entitled to recover from the employer as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction a sum equal to the amount of the benefit so lost.

[1993 s220(2)]

(2) Where an employed contributor or other person has lost benefit in a case referred to in subsection (1) and has not taken proceedings under that subsection, the Minister may, in the name of and on behalf of the contributor or other person, recover from the employer as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction a sum equal to the amount of the benefit lost.

[1993 s220(3)]

(3) Where, by virtue of regulations made under section 17

(a) employment contributions which have not been paid have been treated as paid, or

(b) employment contributions which have been paid late have been treated as paid on the due dates,

and by reason thereof benefit which would otherwise have been lost was paid, there shall be due to the Social Insurance Fund by the employer the amount of the benefit which would have been so lost.

[1993 s220(4)]

(4) Proceedings may be taken under this section notwithstanding that proceedings have been taken under any other provision of Part 2 or this Part in respect of the same failure or neglect.

[1993 s220(5)]

(5) In ascertaining, for the purposes of this section, the amount of benefit lost by an employed contributor or other person by reason of a failure or neglect referred to in subsection (1), account shall not be taken of any assistance paid to the contributor or other person during a period when he or she was losing benefit by reason of that failure or neglect.

[1993 s220(6)]

(6) The amount of assistance paid to an employed contributor or other person during a period when he or she was losing benefit by reason of a failure or neglect referred to in subsection (1) may be recovered by the Minister—

(a) in case the full amount of the benefit which was lost has been recovered by the contributor or other person, from that contributor or other person—

(i) by deduction from any benefit or assistance to which the contributor or other person may be or become entitled, or

(ii) as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction,

or

(b) in any other case, from the employer guilty of the failure or neglect as a simple contract debt in any court of competent jurisdiction,

and, where the amount of the assistance is recovered by the Minister from the employer, the sum recoverable by the contributor or other person from the employer under this section shall be reduced by the amount of that assistance.

[1993 s220(7)]

(7) Any sums recovered by the Minister under subsection (6) shall be paid into the Exchequer.

[1993 s220(8)]

(8) In this section “benefit” means benefit under Part 2.