Injury Benefit

Injury Benefit is a weekly payment made to you if you are unfit for work due to:

• an accident at work
• an accident while travelling (on a continuous journey) to or from work
• a disease that you contract in the course of your employment or due to the work you do, known as an occupational disease

To qualify, you must be unfit for work for more than three days (excluding Sundays or paid holiday leave).

When the accident happened, or the occupational disease was contracted, you must have been employed under any of the contracts of service or apprenticeships that are insurable at social insurance (PRSI) classes A, D, J or M.

At class M, only employees aged under 16 are covered.

However, even if you are unfit for work for three days or less you can still register a claim as evidence that an occupational accident occurred. This safeguards your future rights to benefit under the Occupational Injuries Benefit Scheme because an illness or disablement can develop at a later date.

Injury Benefit and the Sick Leave Act 2022

The Sick Leave Act 2022 provides for a statutory sick pay scheme for all employees who have been with their current employer for at least 13 weeks. From 1 January 2024, an employee has an entitlement to 5 days paid sick leave.

You can read about how Statutory Sick Leave impacts Injury Benefit in 2024 here.

Injury Benefit and Flexible State Pension

From 1 January 2024, the State Pension (Contributory) became more flexible.

If you were born on or after 1 January 1958, you will be able to drawdown your pension at any age between 66 and 70.

If you choose to draw down your pension at a later date than age 66, it will give you the opportunity to continue to work to make PRSI contributions. This may increase your personal rate of payment or help you to meet the qualifying contribution conditions for State Pension (Contributory).

If you decide not to draw down your State Pension (Contributory) at age 66 and meet the conditions of the Injury Benefit scheme, you may receive/apply for Injury Benefit up until the age of 70. You will not receive credited contributions while on Injury Benefit after the age of 66. This may have an impact on your State Pension (Contributory) entitlements.

If you are already in in receipt of Injury Benefit, born after 1 January 1958 and are approaching the age of 66, you will receive a letter from the Department of Social Protection advising you of your options.

Qualified adult means that your spouse’s or partner’s income is below a certain level and you receive an increase in your payment for them.

To avail of a Child Support Payment your child must:

• live with you, in the State
• be the correct age for the payment you are claiming
• not be in legal custody

Depending on your circumstances, some or all of your Injury Benefit payment may be liable to income tax. Tax is not charged on increases paid for any dependent children.

The department pays Injury Benefit without deducting tax. The department does, however, notify Revenue of the taxable amount of Injury Benefit to be taken into account for income tax purposes. This means you do not have to do anything for the correct tax to be paid.

Information about the taxation of social welfare payments is available from Revenue and on the Jobs and Pensions page of the Revenue website www.revenue.ie.

Social insurance (PRSI) and USC are not charged on Illness Benefit payments

You cannot undertake a training or educational course or do voluntary work without prior, written approval from the Department of Social Protection. You must apply to the Injury Benefit section for this approval.

You should apply for Injury Benefit within 6 weeks of becoming ill, otherwise you may lose this benefit. Claims for Injury Benefit are made on form IB1 (application form for Illness Benefit and Injury Benefit), which you get from your doctor. Your doctor can complete your Certificate of Incapacity for Work electronically. If your certificate has not been completed electronically you must submit a paper copy to accompany your Injury Benefit application.

Your last 'Certificate of Incapacity for Work’ should be marked as final by your doctor before you go back to work. If it is not, you should notify the department by email at ClosemyIBclaim@welfare.ie or using the phone numbers at the bottom of this page.

The claim form and ‘Certificate of Incapacity for Work’ (if ‘Online Certificate of Incapacity for Work’ has not been submitted by a doctor) should be submitted to:

Operational guidelines describe the processes and procedures that staff in the department follow when carrying out their work.

• Operational Guidelines: Injury Benefit
• Operational Guidelines: Late Claims for Injury Benefit
• Operational Guidelines: Payment-related issues