Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 section 7

Social Insurance Fund – expenditure on benefit

Section 7 specifies what payments come from the Social Insurance Fund and how certain costs are shared between government departments.

• The Social Insurance Fund pays for all contributory benefits plus household benefits (free fuel, electricity, television licence, telephone rental, gas) for people receiving those benefits.
• The Fund also covers dental and optical payments, and tops up benefits that would otherwise be payable but for the person receiving the State pension (non-contributory) or jobseeker's allowance instead.
• The Minister agrees with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform how to estimate and allocate these costs, with payments going to the Minister for Health (for dental and optical) and the Exchequer (for other items).
• Pandemic unemployment payments made from March 2020 onwards were retrospectively included as Social Insurance Fund payments, categorised according to whether recipients were employees, self-employed, or assistance claimants.

---