Help me understand contributory pension entitlement.

A

AlotToLearn

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Can someone please help me understand my mother’s contributory pension entitlement.

My mother has applied for a contributary pension and has been notified that she is entitled to €97.20 per week.
She was expecting the full rate as she has a 10-year block of 520 contributions 2007-2016 (she thought once she had total 520 contributions, she was fine.) She is very upset.

However, she worked for 13 years in the HSE/Local authority with a 2-year break to have kids back in the 70s and 80s and I think this is where the problem lies.

Her social insurance record shows there’s 46 years accumulated. However, after leaving the Local Authority, there is 21 years where no contributions were made while she was a housewife. 6.25 years of this should have been attributed to the homemakers scheme
(there is no indication of this on the social insurance record and I don’t think it will make much difference to the average)

She has a total of 555 of full (paid + credited) contributions (520 of them are recent) and 601 modified (paid + credited).

Am I correct in saying 46 years was used to calculate the yearly average and we cant do anything about the 21 years of being at home.

She is not in receipt of any other payments and pensions and would not qualify for the non-contributary pension due to her husband’s assets.
 
What class of contributions did she pay in HSE/LA ... is she entitled to a public service pension? afaik lots of people get a combination of public service and state contributory pension.
 
dub_nerd said:
What class of contributions did she pay in HSE/LA ... is she entitled to a public service pension? afaik lots of people get a combination of public service and state contributory pension.
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Sorry dub_nerd I dont know what class of contributions she paid, I am only working off her social insurance record. I doubt she knows where her old payslips/revenue correspondance are.
 
Her PRSI record should say whether she was Class A (typically private sector) of Class B or D (typically public sector or civil service).
Only Class A contributions count towards a Social Welfare pension. She needs a minimum of 520 A Class contributions to get a minimum State Pension. Her “average” calculation is based on a divisor of 46 years. She gets some credits under the Homemakers Scheme (for years after 1994). However the Government have recently announced that additional credits will be granted for years prior to 1994, but that won’t be implemented until mid 2019.
So I expect that she will get additional credits thus increasing her entitlement. But she won’t get anything in relation to the HSE service (Class B/D), thus unlikely to qualify for the full State Pension.
 
RedOnion said:
The new Total Contributions Approach might help. My mam was similar, over 20 years contributions, but because she had worked in 70's, it was averaged. She's expecting to be brought up to full amount when it's reviewed.
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Thanks for that @RedOnion, thats really interesting. Hopefully it will help.

I wonder though would the 601 weeks of modified contributions count or do they calculate TCA on just her 555 full contributions?
 
Thanks for the reply @Conan , Ive been doing some more research, from my reading he modified contributions are Classes B, C and D but are counted if using the Mixed Insurance Contributory Pension method. She would slightly better off if that method was used. I calculated the Mixed Insurance Contributory Pension entitlement to be €99.42

@RedOnion, thats my reading of it too...hopefully it is the case.
 
Thanks for the reply @Conan , from what I can see with further reading, the modified contributions are Classes B, C and D but are counted if using the Mixed Insurance Contributory Pension method. She would slightly better off if that method was used. I calculated the Mixed Insurance Contributory Pension entitlement to be €99.42

@RedOnion, thats my reading of it...hopefully.
 
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