Married Couple State Contributory Pension

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fayf

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Does anyone know, the answer to this question.

Married couple, both qualify individually, for the full amount of the State Contributory Pension of €248.30 per week. They have this confirmed on an individual basis.

Do they receive the maximum per individual,(€248.30 x 2= Total of € €496.60 per week) or, do they only receive the combined lower amount of, full state contributory amount of €248.30 plus the amount for dependant spouse, of €222.50(total of €470.80 per week).
 
Will be €248.30 from 25th March, until then a €5 less. I think.
 
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So my question is if I qualify for a Pension and my wife has a mix of years from other EU countries and 5 years in Ireland would we get the combined lower amount of €470.80 per week?
 
Your wife might well qualify for a pension of her own - the pension contributions from all EU countries is used when calculating her right to a pension. She may well be entitled to a pension from other EU countries. The calculations are complex but the EU has documents explaining how pension rights are implemented across the EU
 
jpd said:
Your wife might well qualify for a pension of her own - the pension contributions from all EU countries is used when calculating her right to a pension. She may well be entitled to a pension from other EU countries. The calculations are complex but the EU has documents explaining how pension rights are implemented across the EU
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My wife is self employed in Ireland, but worked in NI for 10 years. So she will be entitled to a contributory pension in ROI, and a smaller state pension from UK government. Could the state pension in UK jeopardise how much she gets in her ROI pension? We are currently buying back pension years in the UK one (to build it up to 26 years contributions, from the current 10 years contributed). Could this be a waste of time?
 
I don't think so. Her record here won't be affected and currently that will probably determine what State Pension she gets although the rules are changing so it is difficult to say what the rules will be in 10 or 15 years.

It is easy to check whether buying back UK years is worth it as the UK Pensions people will give you a cost and what it will buy - so you can work out what the return on the investment (years bought back) is in terms of increased income (barring the exchange rate and BREXIT risk, of course)
 
jpd said:
I don't think so. Her record here won't be affected and currently that will probably determine what State Pension she gets although the rules are changing so it is difficult to say what the rules will be in 10 or 15 years.

It is easy to check whether buying back UK years is worth it as the UK Pensions people will give you a cost and what it will buy - so you can work out what the return on the investment (years bought back) is in terms of increased income (barring the exchange rate and BREXIT risk, of course)
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Thanks for that. We found out that we can buy back 12 years. We paid for 1 year as a test. We rang them yesterday. They said they got the payment but were unsure where to appropriate it. We were asked to read form NI38 and then fill out form CF83. I looked at the form. It seems to be for UK expats to continue paying stamps when working abroad. All we are entitled to I think is to buy back 12 years, and not keep paying stamps, so I think they are confused. They think we can pay Class 2 stamps, and this is considerably cheaper than Class 3, but again I think this is for UK citizens who are now expats
 
Meath commute
I really dont know about the 12 years as to my understanding you can only buy back 6 years maybe it's because your wife was a teacher and working in public sector in which case the rules may be different. I would advise you to post a question on one of the UK money sites or in the British expat site.

Class 2 contributions can by paid by all people who have worked for three years or more in UK not just for British people who have gone abroad to work.
 
Meath commute, check out UK, The Pensions Advisory Service (TPAS) . They give free online advice on personal and state pensions and I read on their site that due to the changes brought into the state pension in 2016 you can now buy back up to ten years in some circumstances. Good luck with it!
 
To gar32 and others, just a reminder of the the tax situation on state pensions.

A couple who each have a pension in their own right can claim a PAYE credit each
A couple who have a pension with an adult with an adult dependent can only claim 1 PAYE credit.
 
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