# PRSI Claim - Leaving Ireland



## flory

I have been working in Ireland for four years and have made PRSI contributions since the time I arrived. Though, as I understand it I can't avail of the associated health benefits until I make 52 weeks of PRSI payments (e.g. roughly in excess of four years of payments). I am returning to my home country indefinitely in a few weeks and wonder about all those PRSI contributions made without benefits received. Irealand have an agreement with other countries to allow health benefits, though to qualify you still need the 52 week quota payment. Is there a mechanism to claim back PRSI payments, or at least make use of the existing payments?

Thanks


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## jrewing

52 weeks of PRSI payments = 1 year
How does this equate to "in excess of four years of payment" ? Are you confusing it with 52 months ?


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## deem

if you come from another eu country with an agreement with ireland you can transfer your payments of prsi to your home country to avial of the benefits in that country.

I lived in uk for 10 years and paid their PRSI (NI) and on moving back to ireland tfr my contributions and it is now as if i have 10 years prsi contributions in ireland.

I dont think you would be able to get a refund of contributions paid, I know in the UK they allow you to opt out of some benefits and to pay a reduced rate of contribution while you are living and working there, but I dont know if this applies in Ireland but would imagine its too late to get now regardless.

You could try to contact the citizens advice bureau and ask them.


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## maggiemay07

Hi Deem, how did you transfer NI over when you moved back to Ireland?


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## dontaskme

flory said:


> I have been working in Ireland for four years and have made PRSI contributions since the time I arrived. Though, as I understand it I can't avail of the associated health benefits until I make 52 weeks of PRSI payments (e.g. roughly in excess of four years of payments). I am returning to my home country indefinitely in a few weeks and wonder about all those PRSI contributions made without benefits received. Irealand have an agreement with other countries to allow health benefits, though to qualify you still need the 52 week quota payment. Is there a mechanism to claim back PRSI payments, or at least make use of the existing payments?
> 
> Thanks


if you are moving to another EU15 country you can get a card to cover emergency treatment - call to your local health centre. It used to be a form but now they give a plastic card.

PRSI payments or their equivalent are also transferrable between EU15 countries for pension benefits.


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## ClubMan

dontaskme said:


> if you are moving to another EU15 country you can get a card to cover emergency treatment - call to your local health centre. It used to be a form but now they give a plastic card.


EHIC?


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## imogen

Maggiemay, I don't know how it is done now but when I came back from the UK in 1991 I was told to write to social welfare and give my NI number which I did to ensure that all old age pension contributions etc. were also transferred over to Ireland. This is despite my being self employed then in the UK and following the move, self employed in Ireland (ie not entitled to other benefits). If you don't do this you miss out on qualifying years for old age pension. 

I've just found the form - It was PRSI registration for self employed people form SE3 and it was dealt with by Social Welfare in Store Street.

I'd be very interested to find out if anyone knows how this works the other way. I am now fully paid up PAYE/PRSI and may have to move back to UK for family reasons. I would like to know how to transfer entitlement back over to UK, but have not got anywhere on social welfare/citizens info websites in either jurisdiction yet.

I would also just like to mention that I think Clubman (and others here) are worth 50 x what the govt are spending on the Citizen's Information phone/web service at the moment as he actually answers your questions or points you in the right direction! I think Brendan should apply for a grant on the grounds of providing suitable competition to keep the state-subsidised service on its toes...

Imogen


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## imogen

Sorry I should clarify - I'm sure the Citizen's information staff are also only fantastic (I only rang them once and they gave me the information I needed although I had to drag it out of them a bit) but the website appears to have been designed by the proverbial committee and is quite hard to navigate...

Imogen


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## Welfarite

Just to try and clarify things:

1. Pension entitlements: PRSI of national Insurance records can be combined between EU countries (and some others) to qualify a person for a pension. It can also happen that a person can qualify for two pensions, one from each country. All this depends on qualifying criteria, inusrance paid, tec..

2. Social welfare benefits (i.e. jobseekers, illness): People can combine PRSI/Ins in the same wasy as above. However, there may be restrictions such as here in ireland, where you cannot claim Jobseeker's Benefit unless you were last emplyed in this country for at least 1 week. 

3. There is no such thing as "transferring" PRSi as you would money. All that merely happens is that one country asks another to state what record of social insurance is ther and then they use that record to pay due entitlement, if any. Therefore, you don't claim X amount because you paid X amount and have now left the country.  

4. If you are travelling to look for work in another country and in receipt of Jobseeker's benefit in Ireland, you can still get paid that benefit for up to 3 months roughly while abroad. But you must have all this arranged before you go adn it may not get paid out too quickly by the other country's agency!

5. Health cover is a different kettle of fish entirely. The European health Insurance Card is the main proof of cover abroad and has nothing to due with how many PRSI contributions you have (apart from the fact that some % of it is a Health Levy!)

Hope this helps a little....


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## Mynydd

PRSI payments or their equivalent are also transferrable between EU15 countries for pension benefits.[/quote]

Not all countries. The Netherlands is an exemption, I am still paying off a Dutch hospital for needing an ambulance and emergency treatment.


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## bond-007

> 3. There is no such thing as "transferring" PRSi as you would money. All that merely happens is that one country asks another to state what record of social insurance is ther and then they use that record to pay due entitlement, if any. Therefore, you don't claim X amount because you paid X amount and have now left the country.


 
It is a very difficult and slow process to get welfare to acknowledge contributions paid in another EU state. It can take months for them to do so.


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## ClubMan

imogen said:


> Sorry I should clarify - I'm sure the Citizen's information staff are also only fantastic (I only rang them once and they gave me the information I needed although I had to drag it out of them a bit) but the website appears to have been designed by the proverbial committee and is quite hard to navigate...
> 
> Imogen


The old _OASIS _website was easier to navigate and locate info in my opnion. Certainly easier to link directly to specific articles! I posted on _AAM _about this a while ago and also sent my feedback to _Cohmairle _via the website but never heard anything back. I guess the citizens information flow is unidirectional or something?


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## Welfarite

Mynydd said:


> PRSI payments or their equivalent are also transferrable between EU15 countries for pension benefits.
> 
> Not all countries. The Netherlands is an exemption, I am still paying off a Dutch hospital for needing an ambulance and emergency treatment.




As I posted, health (hospital, doctor issues) has nothing to do with PRSI payments. PRSI payments are for pensions, social welfare benefits in the main. This seems to be causing a lot of confusion here


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## Welfarite

bond-007 said:


> It is a very difficult and slow process to get welfare to acknowledge contributions paid in another EU state. It can take months for them to do so.



The problem is not with Irish end, the countries requested to supply the information from their side can take ages to do so.


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## bond-007

Actually in my wifes case they had her UK NI details for over 3 months and never sent them to the UK for her UK record. It took the involvement of a govt minister to get the matter resolved which in the end consisted of a simple phone call to the UK and the contributions credited and a huge cheque issued in back benefit. 20 mins is all it took once they engaged their asses into gear!


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## imogen

Dear Bond

Can you or your wife post here how you do it (at least in theory?) 
I mean how you get PRSI contributions credited to a UK NI record if you move to the UK, not get ministers to ring up for you!

My Dad asked his hospital social worker in London and they hadn't a clue, they think that you have to be without income in the UK for 26 weeks before you become entitled to any benefits but I doubt that is true. I think it may well be true, as in Ireland, that to qualify for jobseeker's benefit you must have LAST worked in the country where you are trying to claim.

Thanks

Imogen


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## Domo

You need to apply to the local Social Security Office (or jobcentre), they will have a form for you to fill out to register your overseas contributions.

When I moved to Ireland I went straight away and registered for this, but it did take several months, as the Irish office had to write to the UK office and them reply to the Irish office - and it did take some time.


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## Welfarite

bond-007 said:


> Actually in my wifes case they had her UK NI details for over 3 months and never sent them to the UK for her UK record.



How do you know this? Did you ask in the intervening months why there was a delay?



bond-007 said:


> It took the involvement of a govt minister to get the matter resolved which in the end consisted of a simple phone call to the UK and the contributions credited and a huge cheque issued in back benefit. 20 mins is all it took once they engaged their asses into gear!



If all it ever took was a "simple phone call", then there would be no need to get the required written evidence of foreign insurance records in order to cover those unengaged asses you talk about! I'd imagine corners were cut in order to get the thing sorted as the original records never arrived and you went to a "government minister". It takes average three months to get them, as I posted above, in my experience.


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## bond-007

The frustrating thing was you never got to talk to anyone above the call center minion level who kept saying they have nothing on record.This went on for 3 months and after all this frustration I contacted my local TD who is a government minister who was disgusted by welfares attitude. He told me personally that they never sent her details to the uk. I have no regrets about involving him and in the circumstances needs must.


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## Welfarite

bond-007 said:


> I contacted my local TD ... He told me personally that they never sent her details to the uk.



A truthful politician, eh?!?


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## dontaskme

Welfarite said:


> Just to try and clarify things:
> 
> 1. Pension entitlements: PRSI of national Insurance records can be combined between EU countries (and some others) to qualify a person for a pension. It can also happen that a person can qualify for two pensions, one from each country. All this depends on qualifying criteria, inusrance paid, tec..
> .


 
As I understand it, if you work 20 years in EU15 country A, 10 years in EU15 country B and 10 years in EU15 country C, A should pay half of what they would pay as a full pension, B and C should pay a quarter each of what they would pay as full pension. 
I'm not sure what effect the higher retirement ages that are coming in will have on this.



Welfarite said:


> 4. If you are travelling to look for work in another country and in receipt of Jobseeker's benefit in Ireland, you can still get paid that benefit for up to 3 months roughly while abroad. But you must have all this arranged before you go adn it may not get paid out too quickly by the other country's agency!


 
There may be further restriction - you have to be eligible for 3 more months of JB to get the payment for 3 months and you have to be signing on for at least 4 weeks in Ireland before transferring. Then if you return, you cannot transfer it out again without having worked in the interim period.

Some European countries pay social welfare monthly, not weekly, so you might have to wait until the end of the month.



Welfarite said:


> 5. Health cover is a different kettle of fish entirely. The European health Insurance Card is the main proof of cover abroad and has nothing to due with how many PRSI contributions you have (apart from the fact that some % of it is a Health Levy!)
> 
> Hope this helps a little....


 
Yep, that's what I meant, the EHIC.


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## deem

maggiemay07 said:


> Hi Deem, how did you transfer NI over when you moved back to Ireland?


 
I went to sw office, i had been working for 6 months in ireland before going to sw office after becoming unemployed, and completed a form dont know what it was called, provided to me by sw office.  they sorted it for me took about 6 weeks, also got notification of entitlement to dental treatment so i thought that was a transfer of contributions but i stand corrected.


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