Social Welfare Act 2010

Abolition of income ceilings.

11.— (1) The Principal Act is amended—

(a) in section 2(1) by substituting the following definition for the definition of “qualifying contribution”:

“ ‘qualifying contribution’ means the appropriate employment contri­bution or self-employment contribution which was paid in respect of any insured person or the appropriate optional contribution which was paid in respect of any optional contributor;”,

(b) in section 13—

(i) in subsection (2) (amended by section 3 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2009 ) by deleting paragraphs (c) and (ca), and

(ii) by deleting subsection (3),

(c) in section 25(1)—

(i) in paragraph (a), by substituting “A contribution” for “Subject to paragraph (c), a contribution”, and

(ii) by deleting paragraph (c),

and

(d) in section 29 by substituting the following subsection for subsection (1) (amended by section 4 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2009 ):

“(1) An optional contributor shall pay an optional contribution amounting to 4 per cent of his or her reckonable income in excess of €2,500 in the preceding contribution year, or €200, whichever is the greater amount.”.

(2) This section comes into operation on 1 January 2011.