Illness Benefit to Invalidity Pension. Must a person apply?

My wife has been on Illness Benefit for 12 years. She is now 65 years of age. Should she apply for Invalidity Pension at this stage?

Should the Dept. of Social Protection have already contacted her about this or must a person make an application?

Who decides?

Firstly, you must apply for all SW benefits.
Secondly, the State Pension age is now 66. So will your wife not continue to receive Illness Benefit to age 66 and then apply for State Pension (based on her PRSI record)?

Conan said:

Firstly, you must apply for all SW benefits.
Secondly, the State Pension age is now 66. So will your wife not continue to receive Illness Benefit to age 66 and then apply for State Pension (based on her PRSI record)?

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I think that she will fall short of the number of PAID contributions required to apply for a Contributory State Pension after her Illness benefit ends on her 66th birthday. She will have about 330.

However to qualify for an Invalidity Pension according to the Citizens Information website you need the following.

"To get Invalidity Pension you must have at least:

• 260 (5 years) paid PRSI contributions since entering social insurance
• 48 contributions paid or credited* in the last OR second-last complete contribution year before the date of your claim"

My wife has 260 PAID PRSI contributions and 48 credited contributions in both the last and second last year before the date of claim.

My understanding is that if you are in receipt of an Invalidity Pension then you automatically qualify for a Contributory Pension. So if she can go from Illness Benefit to Invalidity Pension then she may qualify for the State Pension.

Is my thinking right on this?

Is there a natural progression of Illness Benefit to Invalidity Pension to State Pension?

How long does it take for the relative department to process an Invalidity Pension application?

Illness benefit is only paid for a max of 2 years, so she must be already on a invalidity pension, and now swapping to state pension

Open air said:

Illness benefit is only paid for a max of 2 years, so she must be already on a invalidity pension, and now swapping to state pension

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Illness Benefit is NOW only paid for two years but for people already in the system there is no max.

So how does someone on illness benefit for many years and still on it get the contributory state pension. Is this an anomaly with the system