Illness Benefit

Illness Benefit is a weekly payment that you may get if you cannot work because you are sick or ill.

To get Illness Benefit, you must meet the social insurance (PRSI) conditions – see ‘How to qualify for Illness Benefit’ below.

You should always apply for Illness Benefit if you are medically certified as unfit for work. Even if you don’t qualify for the weekly payment, you may get PRSI credited contributions which can help you qualify for future social welfare payments.

If you don’t qualify for Illness Benefit or while you are waiting for a decision on your claim for Illness Benefit, you may get a Supplementary Welfare Allowance.

Illness Benefit can be paid abroad in some situations. Find out about the rules for getting Illness Benefit abroad.

Employer policy on sick pay and Illness Benefit

You should apply for Illness Benefit while you are out sick from work, whether your employer pays you or not.

Illness Benefit is not linked to your employer's policy on pay for sick leave. However, if you get sick pay from work and Illness Benefit, you should ask your employer about any arrangements in place for this.

Budget 2025

It was announced in Budget 2025:

• A double week payment to people getting long-term Illness Benefit for 12 months or more (October 2024)
• Illness Benefit will increase by €12 with proportional increases for qualified adults and people on reduced rates of payment (January 2025)
• The Increase for a Qualified Child (IQC) will be renamed the Child Support Payment. The weekly rate will increase by €4 from €46 to €50, for children under 12 years of age. It will increase by €8 from €54 to €62 for children aged 12 years and over (January 2025).

From 1 Jan 2024, Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) increased from 3 to 5 days a year. You cannot get Illness Benefit on the days that you get SSP.

If your first illness in 2024 is less than 5 days and you qualify for Statutory Sick Pay, you don't need to apply for Illness Benefit. For illnesses lasting more than 5 days, Illness Benefit starts from day 6.

If you use your 5 days of SSP in 2024 and you become ill again in the same year, you'll get Illness Benefit from day 4 of your illness, which is after the normal 3 waiting days.

See examples of how SSP affects Illness Benefit on gov.ie.

The COVID-19 enhanced Illness Benefit ended on Friday, 30 September 2022. After 30 September 2022, if you are advised to self-isolate due to COVID-19 and have a medical certificate from your GP, you can apply for normal Illness Benefit.

To qualify for Illness Benefit, you must:

• Be under pension age
• Be medically certified as unfit for work by a medical doctor (GP)
• Have enough social insurance (PRSI) contributions – see below
• Apply within 6 weeks of becoming ill

There is no payment for the first 3 days of illness. These are known as ‘waiting days’ (Sunday is not counted as a waiting day.) There are no waiting days if you were getting certain other social welfare payments within 3 days of the start of your illness.

Pension age

If you defer claiming your State Pension (Contributory) to after age 66 and you meet the conditions of Illness Benefit, you can still claim Illness Benefit. You will not get credited contributions while getting Illness Benefit at age 66 or over.

Social insurance (PRSI) contributions

To qualify for Illness Benefit, you must meet 2 social insurance (PRSI) conditions:

You must have at least 104 weeks of PRSI contributions paid since you first started work

and

39 weeks of PRSI contributions paid or credited in the relevant tax year, of which 13 must be paid contributions. If you do not have 13 paid contributions in the relevant tax year, then 13 paid contributions in one of the following tax years can be used instead:

• Either of the 2 tax years before the relevant tax year
• The last complete tax year (before the year in which your claim for Illness Benefit begins)
• The current tax year

or

26 weeks of PRSI contributions paid in the relevant tax year and 26 weeks of PRSI contributions paid in the tax year immediately before the relevant tax year.

The relevant tax year is the second-last complete tax year before the year in which your claim for Illness Benefit begins. For example, if your Illness Benefit claim begins in 2024, the relevant tax year is 2022.

• Only PRSI contributions paid at class A, E, H and P count towards Illness Benefit.
• If you were getting long-term Jobseeker's Allowance, Invalidity Pension, Carer's Allowance or Carer's Benefit immediately before applying for Illness Benefit, you do not need to have 13 paid contributions.
• If you were getting Occupational Injury Benefit (OIB) immediately before applying for Illness Benefit, you may use the tax year that applied to your OIB claim or the tax year that applies to your Illness Benefit claim, whichever is of greatest benefit to you.

To help you qualify for Illness Benefit, you may use your Irish PRSI contributions and your social insurance contributions from a country covered by EU Regulations or the United Kingdom (UK). Your last social insurance contribution must be paid in Ireland.

Illness Benefit is paid for a maximum of:

• 2 years (624 payment days) if you have at least 260 weeks of social insurance contributions paid since you first started work

or

• 1 year (312 payment days) if you have between 104 and 259 weeks of social insurance contributions paid since you first started work

If you claim Illness Benefit (IB) within 26 weeks of your last IB claim, it is treated as one claim. For example, John was getting IB for 6 weeks. He returned to work for 10 weeks. He got ill again and claimed IB for a further 6 weeks. His IB claims are treated as one claim. This means he has used up 12 weeks of IB.

If you have used up your entitlement to Illness Benefit and return to work, you must have a minimum of 13 PRSI contributions paid before you can requalify for Illness Benefit (you must also meet the other qualifying conditions for Illness Benefit).

If you were getting Illness Benefit for 1 year only, you may requalify with fewer than 13 contributions, if additional contributions bring your total PRSI contributions paid up to 260 (for example, if you had 250 contributions when your Illness Benefit expired, you could work and pay 10 contributions to requalify).

Before your payment is due to stop, you will be contacted by the Department of Social Protection (DSP) telling you when your payment will stop and giving you information on your options, for example:

• If you are ill and likely to be permanently incapable of work and satisfy the PRSI conditions, you may get Invalidity Pension
• If you do not get Invalidity Pension and you have a disability that is expected to last for a year or more, you may get a Disability Allowance
• If you do not qualify for any other payments and your income is too low to meet your needs, you may get a Supplementary Welfare Allowance

A review of your entitlement to Illness Benefit

Your Illness Benefit claim will be reviewed from time to time and you may be asked to attend for a medical assessment. The assessment is carried out by a Medical Assessor - this is a doctor employed by the Department of Social Protection.

The Medical Assessor will give their opinion on whether you are fit for work. You must attend for a medical assessment when asked, or your Illness Benefit will be suspended.

If your Illness Benefit is stopped, you have a right to appeal the decision. If you are getting credited contributions only and these are stopped, you can seek a review of the decision, but you do not have a right to appeal it.

You cannot work while you are getting Illness Benefit.

If you are getting Illness Benefit for at least 6 months, you can apply for Partial Capacity Benefit (PCB).

The PCB scheme allows you to return to work and continue to get a social welfare payment, if you have a reduced capacity to work. A Medical Assessor (a doctor employed by the Department of Social Protection) will assess the restriction on your capacity for work.

The rate of PCB paid is based on this assessment.

You cannot start work until you have written approval from the DSP.

You must get written approval from the Illness Benefit section of the DSP before you start any training or educational course or voluntary work.

Sometimes you can get Illness Benefit and another social welfare payment at the same time. For example, you may get help under the Supplementary Welfare Allowance Scheme or the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance, if you meet the qualifying conditions.

The social welfare payments that can be paid with Illness Benefit are:

Your weekly rate of Illness Benefit (IB) will depend on your average weekly earnings in the relevant tax year.

Average weekly earnings are your gross earnings (without deductions) in the relevant tax year divided by the actual number of weeks you worked in that year. If your Illness Benefit claim begins in 2024, the relevant tax year is 2022.

If you had no earnings from work but got PUP in 2021, you will meet the average weekly earnings requirement and get the maximum rate of Illness Benefit. However, if you had earnings from work in 2021, your average weekly earnings will be calculated by dividing your gross yearly earnings by the number of paid contributions.

Usually, no payment is made for the first 3 days of illness.

If you transfer from Jobseeker's Allowance

If you transfer from a long-term Jobseeker's Allowance (paid for at least 390 days) at the maximum rate to Illness Benefit, you can get the maximum rate of Illness Benefit. Your Jobseeker's Allowance and Illness Benefit claim cannot be separated by more than 3 days and you must have a minimum of 260 qualifying contributions.

Spouses, partners and children

You can get an increase in your payment for an adult dependant or child dependant if you meet certain conditions.

Taxation of Illness Benefit

Illness Benefit, both the personal rate and Increase for a Qualified Adult is taxable. Any increases for child dependants is not taxed.

Illness Benefit is paid directly to you without any tax deducted. It is taxed by reducing your tax credits and rate band. Whether you are employed or unemployed, Revenue will take account of the amount of Illness Benefit paid to you when they adjust your tax credits or review the tax of your spouse or civil partner.

Transfer from Carer's Benefit or Carer’s Allowance

If you transfer from Illness Benefit to Carer's Benefit or Carer's Allowance and then back to Illness Benefit, your Illness Benefit will not be paid at a lower rate than that you were paid previously.

You must apply for Illness Benefit within 6 weeks of becoming ill.

If you don't apply within 6 weeks, you may lose some of your payment. If there is a good reason for a delay in applying, your payment may be backdated.

Online application

You should apply for Illness Benefit online at MyWelfare.ie if you have:

• A verified or basic MyGovID account, and
• A medical certificate from your GP

If your GP completed the medical certificate online, you will get a copy of the certificate for your records.

If your GP cannot complete the medical certificate online, you can get the certificate from your GP and email it to [email protected] or post it – see ‘Freepost’ below.

Paper application form

You must get an Illness Benefit claim form (IB1) and a medical certificate called a ‘Certificate of incapacity for work’ from your family doctor (GP). You fill in the IB1 form and freepost it to the Department of Social Protection - see 'Freepost' address below.

Your GP can provide one medical certificate to cover the duration of your illness. Some GPs can complete the medical certificate online. If your GP cannot send it online, you will get a paper medical certificate which you must fill in with your personal details and freepost it with your IB1 form to the Department.

You do not pay for the ‘Certificate of incapacity for work’ as the Department pays the doctor an agreed fee. However, you may have to pay for the doctor to examine you.

Hospital certs

If you are or have been an in-patient in a hospital, you should ask a hospital doctor to give you a pro forma letter which you can bring to your GP who then gives you the claim form (IB1) and medical certificate (Certificate of incapacity for work) with no charge. If you’re still in hospital, a family member can bring the pro forma letter to your GP on your behalf.

You can get more information about applying for Illness Benefit.

Freepost

Completed claim forms (IB1) and medical certificates (Certificate of incapacity for work) should be sent by Freepost to: Social Welfare Services, P.O. Box 1650, Dublin 1.

Appeals

If you think you have been wrongly refused Illness Benefit, you can appeal the decision to the Social Welfare Appeals Office. You should appeal within 21 days of getting the decision.

You must close your claim when you are fit to return to work.

If you have a verified MyGovID account, you can close your claim online at MyWelfare.ie, using the ‘Manage My Claim’ option on your claim card.

If you don’t have a verified MyGovID account, you can contact the Department’s Illness Benefit – Close My Claim section by email at [email protected] or by phone (see ‘Contact details for Illness Benefit’ below).

Your doctor must mark your last ‘Certificate of incapacity for work’ as final before you return to work.

If you cannot get the certificate marked, you should notify the Department’s Illness Benefit – Close My Claim section by email or phone.