Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 section 53

Conditions for receipt

Section 53 sets out the PRSI contribution and earnings conditions a pregnant employee must satisfy to qualify for health and safety benefit.

• A claimant must either have 13 weeks of qualifying PRSI contributions in the 12 months before the expected or actual date of confinement, or have 104 weeks of contributions since first entering insurance combined with a recent contributions record.
• The recent contributions record requires either 39 weeks of contributions (at least 13 qualifying) in the second last complete contribution year or a later year, or 26 qualifying weeks in each of the second last and third last complete contribution years.
• The claimant must also have reckonable weekly earnings above a prescribed threshold during a prescribed period, though this requirement is waived for volunteer development workers returning from developing countries.
• Where the earnings condition is not met, regulations may permit payment at a reduced rate, and the contribution requirement is waived entirely where the claimant received maternity benefit in the same relevant period.