State Pension Entitlement

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DeeKie

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So I have been working all my life, over 23 years. About half of that is as a self employed person and I’m currently self employed. I recently read something that suggested that I would not be entitled to a full State pension. This surprised me as I pay so much tax. I’ve searched but can’t find the answer here.

I’m 50. How do I find out if I’m entitled to a full State pension? Is there anything I can do to get that pension?

Thanks
 
Get your PRSI contribution statement!
it’s not about how much tax you’ve paid, it’s how good your social insurance record is.

the rules for the State pension are due to change- some mix of average contributions (48 avg pa to max) v total contributions (40yrs for max), so if you’ve been paying S class prsi on your self employed income, you should get something.
 
By my reckoning, if you have over 23 years' PRSI contributions to date and have around 16 years to go before you reach the State pension age (66) then you will come close to 40 years' contributions by the time you hit 66. You'll get a full State Contributory Pension with 40 years' contributions. If you decide to stop working before 66, there are various ways of maintaining your PRSI contributions.
 
I’m currently self employed. I’m planning to move to a portfolio career in the next few years so thinking about seeing if I can or need to pay contributions to secure a pension. My portfolio career is not likely to be Aa lucrative as my current one so now is the time for planning.
 
DeeKie said:
I’m currently self employed. I’m planning to move to a portfolio career in the next few years so thinking about seeing if I can or need to pay contributions to secure a pension. My portfolio career is not likely to be Aa lucrative as my current one so now is the time for planning.
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I would suggest that you should make every effort to make PRSI contributions. While an individuals circumstances may be different the basic situation is that for each years contribution you get €330 a year in pension.
 
Yes. I don’t know how to make extra payments so I suppose the first thing is to find out what I’ve made, work out the shortfall and then figure out if I can make it up some way.
 
I have a very small amount of PAYE income lecturing every year. Maybe that helps.
 
Do you have a Public Service Card from gov.ie. If so, you can get your statement in a day or two that way. If not, perhaps apply to get one. It will list your current reckonable PRSI stamps. Start there.
 
Please forgive the stupid question, but what's a "portfolio career" in this context? Not a term I've come across before and Google offers multiple possible meanings. If it means that you'll be doing several jobs at once, each low-paid in itself, the only thing you need to remain mindful of is that at least one of them is earning enough to generate a PRSI contribution each week. Remember that the value of a PRSI contribution is not related to the salary, for the purposes of qualifying for the State Contributory Pension. So if Person A makes 52 PRSI contributions in a year based on a salary of €10,000 per year and Person B makes 52 PRSI contributions in the year based on a salary of €200,000 per year, each one of them has racked up the same 52 qualifying contributions towards their State Contributory Pension.
 
DeeKie said:
Yes. I don’t know how to make extra payments so I suppose the first thing is to find out what I’ve made, work out the shortfall and then figure out if I can make it up some way.
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State Pension Contributory entitlements are based on the number PRSI contributions (Stamps as they were once called). There are a range of different PRSI contribution classes, the key ones in the private sector being A (usually employee) and S (usually self-employed). While there is a relationship between PRSI and income, PAYE, Income Tax and so on, you can forget all those for now - no matter how much you earned or how much tax you paid it has no bearing on your State Pension Contributory entitlements. It is based exclusively on your PRSI contribution history. That's why getting your hands on this is a critical first step and will determine how you proceed. At the extremes, you could possibly have zero contributions, or you could have 23 years worth (Don't panic, given that you were paying tax throughout the 23 years and in employment for at least half that period, it's likely that you were paying PRSI.

There is no "buy-back" or "making up lost years" facility. But there are ways to continue contributing from now until you are 66, even if you decide to finish up work early.

Once you know how many contributions you have, you can then determine what to do over the course of the 16 years that remain. There are a number of different options, but it pointless talking about these until we know the starting point. As Elcato said, if you have a Pubic Services Card you can request your Contribution record online on mywelfare.ie - last few times I requested it I got it within minutes.
 
DeeKie said:
I have a very small amount of PAYE income lecturing every year. Maybe that helps.
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Paye earnings of 38 euro or over per week will earn you a class A Prsi contribution for each worked week. For periods when you have no paye earnings, sign on for class A Prsi credits. By doing this you should be able to gain 52 class A prsi contributions per year.
 
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Ok. Thanks all. I will get my stamps information.

I am thinking about trying to get a few board positions, doing locum or project work, extending my lecturing and possibly doing the public notary exams. Just giving myself options to earn some cash but having the flexibility of turning them all off for a few months a year. That’s what I think a portfolio career would be anyway.
 
S class said:
Paye earnings of 38 euro or over per week will earn you a class A Prsi contribution for each worked week. For periods when you have no paye earnings, sign on for class A Prsi credits. By doing this you should be able to gain 52 class A prsi contributions per year.
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How do you sign on for class a credits with no PAYE income? That’s maybe what I need to do.
 
DeeKie said:
How do you sign on for class a credits with no PAYE income? That’s maybe what I need to do.
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It depends. Jobseekers is one option. Jobseekers (Credits Only) is another. Voluntary contributions is another possibility. Registering as self employed and paying S class is yet another. But, for example, voluntary contribution has a minimum pre existing contribution requirement. So without knowing your knowing your contribution history it's pure guesswork and will only confuse the issue and potentially send you off in the wrong direction.

One other question, do you have somebody who looks after your accounts/tax returns ?
 
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