Illness Benefit after statutory sick pay in Ireland

Statutory sick pay from your employer covers only five certified days a year. If you are off sick for longer than that, the payment most people move on to is Illness Benefit from the Department of Social Protection. This guide explains the rate, the waiting days, the PRSI conditions, how to apply, and how the benefit fits with whatever your employer pays.

The statutory sick pay rules themselves are covered in statutory sick pay in Ireland 2026. If you are worried about your job while you are off, read can you be fired for being sick in Ireland alongside this one.

What Illness Benefit is

Illness Benefit is a weekly social insurance payment for people under 66 who cannot work because of illness or injury. It is paid by the Department of Social Protection, not by your employer, and it is based on the PRSI contributions you have paid while working. The acronym PRSI, and the others used here, are explained in the glossary.

Because it is a social insurance payment rather than an employment right, the rules are set by social welfare legislation and the Department's own scheme, not by the Sick Leave Act 2022. Your employer has no say in whether you qualify, and the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has no role in a dispute about it. If the Department refuses a claim, the appeal goes to the Social Welfare Appeals Office.

How much it pays

The personal rate this site uses is €254 a week from January 2026. That figure is marked as still to be verified against the Department's published rates, so check the Department's Illness Benefit page before relying on it. Budget changes normally take effect from the following January, and any change is tracked on /changes.

The personal rate is the starting point. If you have a dependent adult or dependent children, an increase may be added for each, subject to the Department's conditions on the dependant's own income. Where you have a lower number of recent PRSI contributions, the Department may pay a reduced rate rather than the full personal rate.

Illness Benefit is paid for six days a week, Monday to Saturday, so the weekly figure is made up of six daily amounts. That matters when the waiting days are worked out and when a claim starts or ends part way through a week.

The three waiting days

Illness Benefit is not paid for the first three days of a claim. These are called waiting days. They are counted from the first day of your illness, not from the day you apply, which is why the Department tells you to apply from the first day you are sick even if your employer is paying you for those days.

If you fall ill again within a short period after a previous claim, the Department may link the two claims so that you do not serve the waiting days a second time. The Department's page explains the linking rule.

The waiting days sit alongside your statutory sick pay, not after it. In a typical case the five statutory sick pay days from your employer cover the start of the absence, the three waiting days fall inside that period, and Illness Benefit takes over once the employer's statutory days are used up.

The PRSI conditions

To qualify you need enough PRSI contributions at the right class. In broad terms the Department looks at two things: the number of paid contributions you have since you first started work, and the number of paid or credited contributions in the tax year the Department treats as relevant to your claim. The exact numbers, and which contribution classes count, are on the Department's Illness Benefit page and this site does not restate them, because they change and the Department's own text is the one that governs.

Most employees pay Class A PRSI, which counts. If you are self-employed on Class S, Illness Benefit is not available to you, although other payments may be. If you have recently come to Ireland from another EU or EEA country, or from the UK, contributions paid there may be combined with your Irish ones under the social security coordination rules.

If you are refused on contribution grounds and have no other income, Supplementary Welfare Allowance is the means-tested fallback. Ask at your local Intreo centre or community welfare service.

How to apply

There are three parts to a claim.

1. Your own application. Apply online through MyWelfare using a verified MyGovID account. If you cannot apply online, the paper form (IB1) is available from your GP's surgery or an Intreo centre. Apply as soon as you can, and ideally on the first day, because the Department sets a time limit for claims and a late claim can lose payment for the weeks before it was made.
2. The medical certificate. Your doctor certifies that you are unable to work. Most GP practices now send the certificate to the Department electronically; where they do not, you post the paper certificate. A first certificate starts the claim and further certificates are needed at the intervals your doctor sets, usually weekly or at longer intervals for a longer illness.
3. Your employer's part. The Department may ask your employer to confirm your earnings and the last day you worked. Keep your employer informed of your expected absence in any case, because your contract and the Sick Leave Act both expect that.

Payment is made weekly into your bank account or at a post office. You must tell the Department as soon as you are fit to return to work, and your doctor issues a final certificate.

How Illness Benefit fits with your employer's pay

There are three situations.

Statutory sick pay only. Your employer pays five days a year at 70% of your normal pay, capped at €110 a day, after 13 weeks' service and with a medical certificate from day one. Illness Benefit is claimed from the first day of illness so that the waiting days run, and it takes over when the statutory days are used.

An employer scheme that pays more. Many contracts and handbooks provide full or half pay for a longer period. Those schemes almost always require you to claim Illness Benefit and either pay it over to the employer or have it deducted from your salary, so that the employer is topping up rather than duplicating. Check the sick pay clause in your contract or handbook: it will say whether the employer's pay is inclusive or exclusive of the benefit. An employer scheme can replace the statutory one only if, taken as a whole, it is at least as favourable.

No employer pay at all. If you have less than 13 weeks' service, have used your statutory days, or have no certificate, Illness Benefit may be your only income while you are off. The waiting days still apply.

Illness Benefit is taxable. The Department pays it gross and Revenue collects the tax, usually by reducing your tax credits so that the adjustment comes through your employer's payroll. It is not liable to USC or PRSI.

How long it lasts

Illness Benefit is not open ended. The Department sets a maximum duration that depends on how many paid PRSI contributions you have: a longer limit for people with a substantial record and a shorter limit for people with fewer contributions. Once you have used the maximum you need a further set of contributions before you can requalify. The limits are on the Department's page.

If your illness is long term, the Department will usually write to you before the benefit runs out. At that point the options are Invalidity Pension, Disability Allowance, or a return to work, possibly on a partial basis.

Partial Capacity Benefit and Invalidity Pension

Partial Capacity Benefit lets you return to work with a reduced capacity and keep part of your Illness Benefit or Invalidity Pension, depending on the Department's assessment of how restricted your capacity is. You apply before you go back to work, and your employer must be willing to take you back on the reduced basis.

Invalidity Pension is the longer-term payment for people who are permanently incapable of work, or have been incapable for at least a year and are likely to remain so for a further year, with their own PRSI conditions. The Department's page sets out the qualifying rules.

Your job while you are on Illness Benefit

Being on Illness Benefit does not change your employment status. You remain an employee, your service continues, and annual leave keeps accruing while you are on certified sick leave under the Organisation of Working Time Act 1997. Public holidays during sick leave are covered in public holidays in Ireland 2026.

A long absence can lead an employer to look at your capability. A dismissal on health grounds is not automatically unfair, but it needs medical evidence, consultation with you, a genuine look at a return to work, and reasonable accommodation where the condition amounts to a disability under the Employment Equality Acts. If a long-term absence is being managed in that direction, the detail is in can you be fired for being sick in Ireland.

Keep your employer informed, keep copies of every certificate, and keep a record of any meetings about your absence. If you are asked to attend the company doctor, that is a normal part of a fair process, and the report should be shared with you.

Where this leaves you

The order of payments is set: statutory sick pay from your employer for five certified days, Illness Benefit from the Department after that, with three waiting days counted from the first day of illness and PRSI conditions that only the Department can confirm. Apply on day one, keep the certificates going, and check what your contract says about handing the benefit over if your employer pays more than the statutory minimum.

The sick pay calculator works out how many statutory days you have left in the year, what 70% of your pay comes to under the €110 cap, and where Illness Benefit would take over. Use it before you talk to payroll, and read statutory sick pay in Ireland 2026 for the certificate rules.