Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 section 7

Social Insurance Fund – expenditure on benefit

Section 7 sets out what counts as "benefit" for the purposes of expenditure from the Social Insurance Fund, including not only the standard social insurance benefits but also various household allowances, treatment benefits, notional entitlements displaced by means-tested payments, and pandemic unemployment payments.

• All social insurance benefits must be paid or provided for out of the Social Insurance Fund, and "benefit" is broadly defined to include the standard benefits listed in section 39, certain transitional one-parent family payments, and household utility allowances (free fuel, electricity, television licence, telephone rental, natural gas, and bottled gas) where the recipient qualifies through a contributory benefit.
• The Fund also covers dental and optical treatment payments that would have been payable from the social insurance system had the person not instead used Health Act services, as well as notional benefit amounts displaced because the person receives a non-contributory State pension or jobseeker's allowance instead of the contributory equivalent.
• The amounts to be charged to the Fund for the household allowances, displaced benefits, and Health Act treatment payments are estimated by the Minister on a basis agreed with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, with the Health Act treatment sums paid to the Minister for Health and the remainder reimbursed to the Exchequer.
• Pandemic unemployment payments made under the emergency supplementary welfare allowance provisions from 13 March 2020 up to the commencement of the dedicated Covid-19 jobseeker's benefit chapter are also treated as Fund expenditure, classified as either jobseeker's benefit, jobseeker's benefit (self-employed), or jobseeker's allowance depending on the claimant's circumstances.

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