Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 section 20

Self-employed contributors and insured persons

Section 20 establishes who must register as a self-employed contributor for social insurance purposes and sets out the regulatory powers to modify these rules.

• Individuals aged 16 to pensionable age with reckonable income or emoluments must be self-employed contributors, even if also employed contributors
• People born on or after 1 January 1958 who have reached pensionable age but are under 70 and not receiving a State pension (contributory) must also contribute
• Once registered as a self-employed contributor, insurance coverage continues for life
• Regulations may expand or modify the classes of self-employed contributors and adapt existing provisions