Mothers Pension have I calculated correctly?

T

thewheelweaves

New Member
Messages
3
Hi All,

I am hoping for a bit of direction. Myself and my mam are trying to work out what her pension will be. She is due to retire in 2032. She started working in 1985 then had a 20 year gap as she moved the UK, then moved back. She has been working since as a mix of employed/ self employed.

She currently has 976 contributions per her 'mywelfare' statement. I calculate that she will make another 427 up to her 66th birthday. She is currently employed but is very sick, if she goes long term illness I think she still gets a full contribution so I've counted them all.

Do I do her average over 40 years or 47 years? If they round up for 47 years she is in the same bracket either way which is €247.30 (today)

Entered Insurance
1985​
Retire
2032​
Years
47​
Contributions to 2023
976​
To contribute
416​
In 2032
11​
Total Contributions
1403​
Avg over 47 years
29.85​
Avg over 40 years
35.08​
 
I think you have to go back to the drawing board with your entire calculation.
By the time your mother is retiring in 2032 some important changes have already become reality. Check this out- the most important part is at the bottom:

State Pension (Contributory)

The State Pension (Contributory), previously called the Old Age (Contributory) Pension, is payable to people aged 66 and over who have worked and paid enough social insurance contributions.
www.citizensinformation.ie
 
Dr Strangelove said:
Did she work in the UK and pay national insurance?

If so, for how many years?
Click to expand...
She did for 20 years. I think she will be able to claim a small pension from there too

@Forumuser

I thought she would still be on the old way of calculating:

"Over the following 10 years (from 2025 to 2034), the ‘yearly average method’ will be phased out. By 2034, all pensions for people born on or after 1 January 1968, will be calculated using only the TCA."

She was born in 1966. Which way of calculating should I be using? She is on about topping up her contributions, is that something we have in Ireland?

I think she would probably qualify for the full non contributary pension. She doesn't own a home, has less than €20k in the bank, doesn't have a spouse/ partner.
 
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Read the supplied link:
Pension calculation in 2032 will be 80% TCA and only 20% average calculation. So there is no pure average calculation for your mother anymore.

Your mother can make voluntary contributions in Ireland if she is not working anymore:

Voluntary social insurance contributions

Voluntary social insurance contributions can help you qualify for a social insurance payment in the future. Find out more about making voluntary contributions.
www.citizensinformation.ie
 
Has she investigated the possibility of buying additional years in the UK system to get a higher UK pension ? See separate section on this site.
 
thewheelweaves said:
then moved back. She has been working since as a mix of employed/ self employed.
Click to expand...
Did she ever spend time as a full-time carer in Ireland if a child under 12?

If so she can qualify for the homemakers scheme which disregards these periods for calculating the average.
 
thewheelweaves said:
She did for 20 years. I think she will be able to claim a small pension from there too
Click to expand...
This should give her about (very roughly) 40% of the UK pension which would amount to about 4 or 5k sterling pa or as much as €100 a week. Not to be sneezed at . Of course it assumes she has 20 years of NI stamps paid, or paid on her behalf by her employer there. My experience of the UK is that paying stamps was not always top priorities for a lot of employers there in the 80s and 90s.
 
@Forumuser thanks, she is on sick leave right now but is still in employment. If she does become long term unemployed due to illness would she be better off just claiming the non contributory pension?

@Conan it is something she has heard of so I must look into it a bit more.

@Dr Strangelove no she didn't

@elcato she was mainly employed in banks and UK state agencies so she does have her stamps. I did get a print out of them before but can't remember where I put it. She is already getting approx €150 p/m from 1 pension and I think she only worked in the place 4 years and never paid into the pension so she actually might have done well on that front.

Can you claim the Irish state pension and the UK state pension at the same time? Guessing there will be tax implications there?

My mother and I are pretty different people when it comes to planning for retirement. I have a private pension I have been not massively paying into, but paying. I am building an asset to rely on. She has 'played it by ear' which is actually now me looking into it all for her
 
thewheelweaves said:
@Forumuser thanks, she is on sick leave right now but is still in employment. If she does become long term unemployed due to illness would she be better off just claiming the non contributory pension?
Click to expand...
It is very hard to give an answer to that question.

I do not know how much your mother already would get with her UK pension on its own.
If your mother would become permanent ill or jobless until her 66th birthday, she would clock up one credited contribution for every week she signs on or is certified being sick. All those credits can be taken into consideration as well when she reaches her 66th birthday.

I make a rough guess: Someone here has put her UK pension on Euro 100 per week- and I presume this calculation is done only on her UK figures. I'll estimate her Irish pension (Taking 1403 Contributions and credits into consideration) to be around Euro 190- give or take. The sum of those two pensions would put her well above the NC pension rate (Euro 266 at the moment).

I do not know what the figure would be for a pro rata Irish-UK pension.
 
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