Maternity Benefit

kerrymaid11

Hi Everyone

This is a long story so please bear with me!

I applied for maternity benefit last October 2012. I was self employed last year 2012 so they based my application on that year as I didn't have enough stamps in 2011 (i.e. 35 weeks; I needed 39 weeks!).

The department of social protection requested a Notice of Assessment for 2012 so I was in regular contact with them asking why they needed that as there are other conditions that I would satisfy in order to qualify for the benefit. They flat out refused to hear me out saying they had to base the application on 2012 and they don't go back to previous years rather they go forward.

Here are the conditions that apply in relation to self employed persons as quoted from their website highlighted in italics below:-
"If you are self-employed you must be in insurable employment and have:

• 52 weeks PRSI contributions paid at Class S in the relevant tax year. For example, if you are going on maternity leave in 2013, the relevant tax year is 2011.

Or

• 52 weeks PRSI contributions paid at Class S in the tax year immediately before the relevant tax year. For example, if you are going on maternity leave in 2013, the tax year immediately before the relevant tax year is 2010.

Or

• 52 weeks PRSI contributions paid at Class S in the tax year immediately following the relevant tax year. For example, if you are going on maternity leave in 2013, the tax year immediately following the relevant tax year is 2012.

PRSI Class S contributions for a particular year are not awarded until you have paid tax due for that year. Your income tax and PRSI liabilities (for any year you were self employed) must be paid to qualify for Maternity Benefit.

If you do not meet these PRSI conditions and you were in insurable employment before becoming self-employed, you can use your PRSI contributions (Class A and E) in that employment to qualify for Maternity Benefit – see PRSI conditions for employed people above.


You may also be required to submit your accounts or a statement from your accountant for the current year to prove that you are self-employed and liable to pay a Class S contribution".

Following on from that I sought the advice of my accountant who submitted my accounts to revenue to generate a Notice of Assessment. As I didn't earn more than €5,000 I was not liable to pay class s prsi in 2012.

I contacted the department once again to argue the point in the conditions above marked in bold, they refused to hear me out and argued that I would be shot down if I appealed on this point.

Following the advice from my accountant I went to the Citizens Information to seek their opinion on it. They agreed with me that I qualified under my previous employment and rang the department of social protection to confirm that this point was correct. A member of staff of the department agreed with this point and stated that if I didn't qualify under self employment then they would go back to 2010 when I was in employment and that I would need 52 weeks prsi contributions, in which case I did qualify.

The department also said that I would need to submit the Notice of Assessment first which I did a week ago. I am just after receiving a letter back from the department saying I do not qualify as I was not in insurable self employment in 2012. How frustrating! I now plan to appeal this decision.

Again apologies for the long thread but I am just wondering has anyone had a similar experience to this and have appealed these decisions and what is the likelihood of a successful appeal. Really appreciate some advice on this people!

Many thanks