Social Welfare (Consolidation) Act, 1981

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Limitation of benefits by pre-accident earnings.

[1966 OI, s. 25; 1970, s. 20]

56.—(1) The weekly rate of injury benefit, including any increase thereof, or of disablement pension, including any increase thereof, shall not exceed the beneficiary's weekly earnings from insurable (occupational injuries) employment at the time of the relevant accident.

(2) Where, in respect of the whole or part of any week for which a beneficiary is entitled to payment of a disablement pension, any one of the following is also payable to him—

(a) disability benefit,

(b) unemployment benefit,

(c) unemployment assistance,

(d) retirement pension,

(e) invalidity pension,

and the aggregate of the two payments would otherwise exceed the beneficiary's weekly earnings from insurable (occupational injuries) employment at the time of the relevant accident, the weekly rate of the disablement pension, including any increase thereof, shall be reduced in respect of that week by the amount of the excess.

(3) Subsections (1) and (2) shall be subject to the proviso that in no case shall the rate payable, including any increase thereof, be reduced below the amount set out in Part V of the Second Schedule .

(4) For the purposes of subsections (1) to (3), the weekly earnings of a person from insurable (occupational injuries) employment at the time of the relevant accident shall be the rate of his remuneration at that time for a full normal working week in the employment in which the accident occurred, overtime being disregarded for this purpose, or, if he was not employed full-time in that employment at the time of the relevant accident, the rate of remuneration which would be provided by his employer for a full normal working week in that employment, overtime being disregarded:

Provided that—

(a) where a person was being remunerated otherwise than at a weekly rate, the weekly earnings of such person from insurable (occupational injuries) employment at the time of the relevant accident shall be the rate of remuneration which he would earn for a full normal working week in that employment, overtime being disregarded,

(b) where by reason of the casual nature of the employment or the terms of the employment, it is impracticable to compute the rate of remuneration which would be provided by the employer for a full normal working week at the time of the relevant accident, regard may be had to the weekly amount which was being earned at that time by a person employed at the same work by the same employer, or if there is no person so employed, by a person in the same grade employed in the same class of employment and in the same district, and

(c) for the purposes of subsection (1) in the case of disablement pension and for the purposes of subsection (2), the weekly remuneration, overtime being disregarded, provided during any period after the relevant accident in an employment in which a person was employed at the time of the relevant accident may be substituted in relation to that period for his actual weekly earnings at the time of the relevant accident if this would be more beneficial to him; and account shall be taken for this purpose (where appropriate) of a person's reasonable prospects of advancement to full adult rate of remuneration.

(5) Where—

(a) a person is, by virtue of regulations under section 55 , entitled to weekly payments under this Chapter, and

(b) the amount of any such payment or payments for any week together with the weekly payment of compensation to which he is entitled under the Workmen's Compensation Acts (or where he has ceased to be entitled to weekly payments of compensation under those Acts, the last such weekly payment) is in excess of the weekly earnings, overtime being disregarded, for the time being provided in the employment in which the relevant accident happened or due to the nature of which the relevant disease was contracted, account being taken for this purpose (where appropriate) of a person's reasonable prospects of advancement to full adult rate of remuneration,

the amount of the weekly payment or payments under this Chapter for that week shall be reduced by the excess.

In this subsection “relevant accident” means the accident in respect of which the weekly payment of compensation became payable and “relevant disease” means the disease in respect of which that payment became payable.

[1966 OI, s. 25 (6)]

(6) For the purposes of this section, where the amount of weekly earnings is not exactly divisible by 5 the earnings shall be taken to be the next higher amount which is exactly divisible by 5.