SOCIAL WELFARE AND PENSIONS ACT 2014

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Citation: IR No. 16/2014
• Year: 2014

• Full Act
• Act by Section
• Act As Enacted
• Amendments
• PDF annotated
• PDF unannotated

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Number 16 of 2014

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SOCIAL WELFARE AND PENSIONS ACT 2014

REVISED

Updated to 1 January 2018

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This Revised Act is an administrative consolidation of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2014. It is prepared by the Law Reform Commission in accordance with its function under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975 (3/1975) to keep the law under review and to undertake revision and consolidation of statute law.

All Acts up to and including Finance Act 2017 (41/2017), enacted 25 December 2017, and all statutory instruments up to and including Legal Metrology (Measuring Instruments) Act 2017 (Commencement) Order 2018 (S.I. No. 1 of 2018), made 4 January 2018, were considered in the preparation of this Revised Act.

Disclaimer: While every care has been taken in the preparation of this Revised Act, the Law Reform Commission can assume no responsibility for and give no guarantees, undertakings or warranties concerning the accuracy, completeness or up to date nature of the information provided and does not accept any liability whatsoever arising from any errors or omissions. Please notify any errors, omissions and comments by email to

revisedacts@lawreform.ie.

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Number 16 of 2014

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SOCIAL WELFARE AND PENSIONS ACT 2014

REVISED

Updated to 1 January 2018

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Introduction

This Revised Act presents the text of the Act as it has been amended since enactment, and preserves the format in which it was passed.

Related legislation

Pensions Acts 1990 to 2015: this Act is one of a group of Acts included in this collective citation, to be construed together as one (Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2015 (47/2015), s. 1(3)). The Acts in this group are:

• Pensions Act 1990 (25/1990)

• Pensions (Amendment) Act 1996 (18/1996)

• Pensions (Amendment) Act 2002 (18/2002)

• Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2003 (4/2003), s. 24

• Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2004 (9/2004), ss. 22 and 23

• Equality Act 2004 (24/2004), Part 4

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2005 (4/2005), ss. 27-39

• Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Act 2006 (5/2006), ss. 38-44

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007 (8/2007), s. 37

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2008 (2/2008), ss. 26-29

• Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2008 (22/2008), s. 24

• Social Welfare And Pensions Act 2009 (10/2009), Part 5

• Social Welfare And Pensions (No. 2) Act 2009 (43/2009), Part 3

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2010 (37/2010), Part 5

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2011 (9/2011), Part 4

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2012 (12/2012), Part 3

• Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2013 (20/2013), Part 4

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2013 (38/2013), Part 4

• Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act 2013 (49/2013), Part 3

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2014 (16/2014), Part 3

• Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act 2014 (41/2014), s. 4

• Equality (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2015 (43/2015), s. 2

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2015 (47/2015), Part 3

Annotations

This Revised Act is annotated and includes textual and non-textual amendments, statutory instruments made pursuant to the Act and previous affecting provisions.

An explanation of how to read annotations is available at

www.lawreform.ie/annotations.

Material not updated in this revision

Where other legislation is amended by this Act, those amendments may have been superseded by other amendments in other legislation, or the amended legislation may have been repealed or revoked. This information is not represented in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the amended legislation if one is available.

Where legislation or a fragment of legislation is referred to in annotations, changes to this legislation or fragment may not be reflected in this revision but will be reflected in a revision of the legislation referred to if one is available.

A list of legislative changes to any Act, and to statutory instruments from 1989, may be found linked from the page of the Act or statutory instrument at

www.irishstatutebook.ie.

Acts which affect or previously affected this revision

• Water Services Act 2014 (44/2014)

All Acts up to and including Finance Act 2017 (41/2017), enacted 25 December 2017, were considered in the preparation of this revision.

Statutory instruments which affect or previously affected this revision

• Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2014 (Section 6) (Commencement) Order 2014 (S.I. No. 530 of 2014)

All statutory instruments up to and including Legal Metrology (Measuring Instruments) Act 2017 (Commencement) Order 2018 (S.I. No. 1 of 2018), made 4 January 2018, were considered in the preparation of this revision.

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Number 16 of 2014

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SOCIAL WELFARE AND PENSIONS ACT 2014

REVISED

Updated to 1 January 2018

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Acts Referred to

Central Bank Act 1971 (No. 24)

Employment Equality Act 1998 (No. 21)

Finance (Local Property Tax) Act 2012 (No. 52)

Immigration Act 1999 (No. 22)

Merchant Shipping Act 1894 (c.60)

Pensions Act 1990 (No. 25)

Pensions Acts 1990 to 2013

Protection of Employees (Employers’ Insolvency) Act 1984 (No. 21)

Redundancy Payments Act 1967 (No. 21)

Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2010 (No. 28)

Social Welfare Acts

Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2013 (No. 20)

Social Welfare and Pensions (No. 2) Act 2009 (No. 43)

Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007 (No. 8)

Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2008 (No. 2)

Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2010 (No. 37)

Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2012 (No. 12)

Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 (No. 26)

Social Welfare Law Reform and Pensions Act 2006 (No. 5)

Statistics Act 1993 (No. 21)

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Number 16 of 2014

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SOCIAL WELFARE AND PENSIONS ACT 2014

REVISED

Updated to 1 January 2018

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An Act to give further effect to Directive 2010/41/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 July 2010 ¹ on the application of the principle of equal treatment between men and women engaged in an activity in a self-employed capacity and for those and other purposes to amend the Social Welfare Acts; to amend the Pensions Act 1990 and to provide for related matters. [17 th July, 2014]

Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:

PART 1

Preliminary and General

1.

Short title, construction, collective citations and commencement

1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2014.

(2) The Social Welfare Acts and Part 2 shall be read together as one.

(3) The Pensions Acts 1990 to 2013 and Part 3 shall be read together as one and may be cited together as the Pensions Acts 1990 to 2014.

(4) Sections 6, 9 and 10 shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister for Social Protection may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or different provisions.

Annotations

Editorial Notes:

E1

Power pursuant to subs. (4) exercised (1.01.2015) by Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2014 (Section 6) (Commencement) Order 2014 (S.I. No. 530 of 2014).

2. The 1st day of January 2015 is appointed as the day on which section 6 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2014 (No. 16 of 2014) shall come into operation.

PART 2

Amendments to Social Welfare Acts

2.

Definitions

2. In this Part—

Act of 2007” means the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2007;

Act of 2008” means the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2008;

Act of 2013” means the Social Welfare and Pensions (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2013;

Principal Act” means the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005.

3.

Payments programmes

3. The Principal Act is amended—

(a) in section 2(1), by inserting the following definition:

‘payment service provider’ has the meaning given to it by section 289A;”,

(b) in section 5, by substituting the following subsection for subsection (4):

(4) Fees incurred on foot of an arrangement under section 289A with a payment service provider, subject to the arrangement concerned and the agreement of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform as to the manner of payment, shall be paid by the Minister out of the Social Insurance Fund to the payment service provider.”,

(c) in section 242—

(i) in subsection (1), by substituting the following paragraph for paragraph (c):

“(c) the payment of specified benefits through a payment service provider.”,

(ii) by inserting the following subsections after subsection (3):

“(4) (a) Any person presenting for payment of benefit, on his or her own behalf or on behalf of another person, shall satisfy the Minister, an officer of the Minister or a payment service provider as to his or her identity by furnishing—

(i) a public services card,

(ii) a card issued by the Minister under section 264, or

(iii) such information or document as the Minister, an officer of the Minister or a payment service provider may reasonably require for the purposes of authenticating the identity of that person.

(b) Where a person fails to comply with paragraph (a), payment of benefit may be withheld until such time as the identity of the person is authenticated.

(5) The information or documentation furnished for the purposes of authenticating identity under subsection (4) (a) may be recorded or retained by the Minister, an officer of the Minister or a payment service provider.”,

(d) in section 261, by inserting the following subsection after subsection (2A):

(2B) Information held by the Minister for the purposes of this Act or the control of schemes administered by or on behalf of the Minister or the Department of Social Protection may...