PRSI and USC while on Parent's Benefit

[AlwaysLearning]

Hi,

New poster so apologies if this is in the wrong forum or has already been asked - I did a quick search but couldn't find the answer I was looking for.

I took two weeks of Parent's Leave this month so received the state payment. I am paid monthly and on a salary so my employer deducted two weeks wages accordingly.
The PAYE on my payslip has reduced significantly (I can't work out exactly how this is calculated so I can't say for certain if it's correct but it seems to be in the right ballpark).
However, my PRSI and USC haven't reduced.
My pension hasn't reduced either but I'm less concerned about that.

Do I still pay PRSI and USC on my full salary even though I only received half (plus the state payments)? The state payment is significantly less than what my weekly wage would be so it doesn't seem fair.
Citizens Information suggests that I should have received credits for those two weeks instead of paying. Is that correct?

Finally, if there has been a mistake, do I raise this with my employer who will balance it out on my next payslip or do I need to do it myself on Revenue (I'm hoping the former)?

TIA for any responses

 

[Fionclaire]

@AlwaysLearning, I would suggest you check my account within Revenue, as you should see an amended tax credit certificate, which would have adjusted your tax credits and rate bands by the amount of parent benefit, sent as a ROS P2C file to your employer, and this will explain your PAYE.
Parent Benefit is not subject to USC or PRSI. Regardless, considering your employer deducted two weeks wages from your salary, with now a lesser gross pay, I don't understand why your PRSI and USC or indeed pension, were not reduced based on your previous payslip. I would suggest you speak with payroll.
Did your employer happen to pay the full months gross wages, and then did a deduction of two weeks on your payslip, as the deduction may have been handled incorrectly.

 

[AlwaysLearning]

@Fionclaire thanks for your reply. I've included a snip below to show how the deduction was included on my payslip. It seems to have been deducted from my gross pay so I think that's right.





But you've made me look into what I've been paid and what I've been taxed over the last year and I have far more questions now.

My pay was topped up to full pay for 4 weeks, half pay for 8 weeks and no top up for the remaining 14 weeks.
The top-ups were all within 2024 and my updated tax cert for that period reduced my 20% tax band by 52 weeks worth of maternity benefit (€14,248) even though I only received 18 weeks (€4,932) in 2024. Does that mean I've been taxed more than I should have been on my top-ups?

My 2025 tax cert reduces the amount of income taxed at 20% by 8 weeks (€2,312 - the rate increased in 2025), which is correct. But does this mean I've now paid tax on a full year of maternity leave for 2024 plus 8 weeks of 2025?
Side note: An updated cert in March increased to 9 weeks because the payment on 30/12/2024 technically covered the first week of January, even though it was paid at the lower 2024 rate.

I haven't received an updated cert for this month so I presume that will be accounted for in next month's payslip.

Is there someone that I can arrange a call with to go through my details specifically and let me know whether there are any mistakes in my tax credits, PRSI, USC etc. as a result of maternity leave and parents leave?

 

[Marsupial]

Why not sign up for Revenue's "My Account" and file a Form 12 tax return for 2024?

Even if you fill it in offline and don't submit it, it will help you to get a handle on last year's situation.

(That's assumintg that you're separately assessed; if you're jointly assessed with a partner then things are a bit more complicated.)

 

[Ciru75]

The top-ups were all within 2024 and my updated tax cert for that period reduced my 20% tax band by 52 weeks worth of maternity benefit (€14,248) even though I only received 18 weeks (€4,932) in 2024. Does that mean I've been taxed more than I should have been on my top-ups?

It shouldn't to any major degree. What should happen is that the cert was on a week 1 basis so it would only apply for one week (or month or whatever your pay frequency is) at a time and not charge you for the earlier part of the year. It might be slightly off if there was a delay in revenue getting the information on the benefit paid and if your pay was lower when you were getting the maternity benefit you might be due a refund of tax paid earlier.

Filing a form 12 will sort out any discrepancies anyway.

 

[Fionclaire]

@Always Learning. Can you confirm you got paid directly for the parental benefit?
Re 2024 - Have you checked my account on Revenue, which will show 2024 preliminary tax workings. If you have not completed your 2024 tax return, I would suggest you do that first, as stated above, it will have sorted out any of the annualised credits adjusted/deducted in 2024, with real time amounts.
Check out my welfare also, to see all payments received in 2024 and 2025 are in fact in order.
Can you confirm your previous payslip prior to the one above, held the same amount of PRSI and USC, and Pension values, as none of that makes sense considering your gross has reduced significantly.

 

[ClubMan]

Re 2024 - Have you checked my account on Revenue, which will show 2024 preliminary tax workings.

myAccount is for PAYE. Preliminary tax is a self assessed thing. You seem to be mixing up two very different things here?

 

[Ciru75]

myAccount is for PAYE. Preliminary tax is a self assessed thing. You seem to be mixing up two very different things here?

PAYE workers can get a Preliminary End of Year Statement on myaccount which shows the position from the pay and tax details for the year (before any claims for health expenses or anything).