Key Post PRSI and planning retirement

It is minimum 500 euro or a percentage of previous years earnings. So the first year could be a lot more than 500 euro but subsequent years up to age 70 would be 500 euro
He would need to calculate the total cost of the voluntary Prsi and the loss of his 30 ish euro per week for 4 years to calculate if this is worthwhile.

Going by what you have said it looks impossible for him to reach the 520 full rate paid Prsi level to enable him to get a pension calculated using the averaging method.
If he was able to reach this level he could get a pension nearer to 70 euro per week.

He would need almost 5 extra years of full rate paid contributions to achieve this.

Is there any possible way for him to reach 520 full rate paid Prsi.

Has he carefully checked his Prsi record.
Does he have any pre establishment paid contributions.
Some of the contributions on his record could be called ORDS. These are full rate paid contributions.

Was there a gap between ceasing his class D employment and the start of his class A employment. Was this gap within the last 5 years. If such a gap exists it could be filled by voluntary contributions.
 
S class said:
It is minimum 500 euro or a percentage of previous years earnings. So the first year could be a lot more than 500 euro but subsequent years up to age 70 would be 500 euro
He would need to calculate the total cost of the voluntary Prsi and the loss of his 30 ish euro per week for 4 years to calculate if this is worthwhile.

Going by what you have said it looks impossible for him to reach the 520 full rate paid Prsi level to enable him to get a pension calculated using the averaging method.
If he was able to reach this level he could get a pension nearer to 70 euro per week.

He would need almost 5 extra years of full rate paid contributions to achieve this.

Is there any possible way for him to reach 520 full rate paid Prsi.

Has he carefully checked his Prsi record.
Does he have any pre establishment paid contributions.
Some of the contributions on his record could be called ORDS. These are full rate paid contributions.

Was there a gap between ceasing his class D employment and the start of his class A employment. Was this gap within the last 5 years. If such a gap exists it could be filled by voluntary contributions.
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That is very helpful. I will check his contributions. He only worked for 1 year 23-24 which was 4 years after retirement from his D job. Not in a position for health reasons to earn any more A contributions. Thank you so much for your prompt reply
 
Hi, I applied for my pension last month, I turned 66 last June but I'm still working.

I have 759 paid and credited contributions, I entered the workforce in 1974, 50 years ago, I had just turned 16, and it was my first Summer job.
Under the long average method the 759 is divided by 50, which gives me a yearly average of 15, and entitles me to a weekly pension of €180.70, I spoke to a very nice lady in The Dept. of Social Protection this morning, I wanted to know if people like me who worked summer jobs, would loose out and she said yes, but that this method of calculation was brought in to close a loophole, seeming people were coming in from other EU countries, working for 10 years and claiming the full contributory pension, interesting to see how much I've actually contributed since I entered the workforce.
 
A Quinlan said:
Hi, I applied for my pension last month, I turned 66 last June but I'm still working.

I have 759 paid and credited contributions, I entered the workforce in 1974, 50 years ago, I had just turned 16, and it was my first Summer job.
Under the long average method the 759 is divided by 50, which gives me a yearly average of 15, and entitles me to a weekly pension of €180.70, I spoke to a very nice lady in The Dept. of Social Protection this morning, I wanted to know if people like me who worked summer jobs, would loose out and she said yes, but that this method of calculation was brought in to close a loophole, seeming people were coming in from other EU countries, working for 10 years and claiming the full contributory pension, interesting to see how much I've actually contributed since I entered the workforce.
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Congrats to your pension. You are lucky- you qualify for Euro 180.70 under the average system. If we would be in 2034 now and you would just have applied for your pension, you would only get Euro 101.07 per week under the TCA calculation. So much about "closing loopholes". There is a massive reduction in people's pension entitlements coming down the road....
 
In your case you didn't loose out.

In order to get a larger pension with your 759 contributions you would have needed a working life starting at roughly age 28 to have achieved an average of 19.5.

The averaging method has been very favourable to you.

Under the total contributions system which in the future will be the only calculation method, you would have received a weekly pension of 101.19 euro
 
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A Quinlan said:
Hi, I applied for my pension last month, I turned 66 last June but I'm still working.

I have 759 paid and credited contributions, I entered the workforce in 1974, 50 years ago, I had just turned 16, and it was my first Summer job.
Under the long average method the 759 is divided by 50, which gives me a yearly average of 15, and entitles me to a weekly pension of €180.70, I spoke to a very nice lady in The Dept. of Social Protection this morning, I wanted to know if people like me who worked summer jobs, would loose out and she said yes, but that this method of calculation was brought in to close a loophole, seeming people were coming in from other EU countries, working for 10 years and claiming the full contributory pension, interesting to see how much I've actually contributed since I entered the workforce.
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Are you actually receiving that figure now? Or is that just the amount you've calculated? Or is it the amount they've told you?
 
summer12 said:
Yes, last employment was Class A. I didn't work after that, so I'm signing for Jobseeker's credits based on that job. I have 171 paid A contributions.
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Hi summer12.

I was reading back on the information I previously gave you.
In order for voluntary contributions to count towards your pension you need to have a minimum of 260 full rate paid contributions first. As you currently only have 171 you would need to get employment for another 89 weeks to get you to the 260 full rate paid level.

Sorry for providing wrong information.
 
S class said:
Hi summer12.

I was reading back on the information I previously gave you.
In order for voluntary contributions to count towards your pension you need to have a minimum of 260 full rate paid contributions first. As you currently only have 171 you would need to get employment for another 89 weeks to get you to the 260 full rate paid level.

Sorry for providing wrong information.
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Thanks for letting me know. I appreciate the advice received here.
 
This seems like a surprising statement to me:
www.rte.ie

The 5 most useful financial-planning tips

John Lowe of MoneyDoctors.ie explains financial planning in a nutshell - essential for every walk of life.
www.rte.ie www.rte.ie
John Lowe of MoneyDoctors.ie explains financial planning in a nutshell - essential for every walk of life.

With a good pension plan you can leave work early and, if you live to 100 or more, never have to worry about money again. I personally would not depend on the State pension - I believe it may not be there in 20 years time irrespective of auto-enrolment being brought into the workplace next September.
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Scare-mongering. Any party that tried to remove the contributory pension that I’ve contributed to all of my working life wouldn’t see a vote from the next 28 generations of my family, I’d make sure of it!!

And I’m probably not alone in that regard. :D

Genuinely though, there’s not a party that would even want to do this. Our PR system almost guarantees a left-wing tilt to any government, or at worst an independent parish-pump tilt, neither of which would get re-elected if they removed it. Tbh, we’re more likely to increase it beyond our means than eliminate it. But the reality is that demographics probably means its current purchasing power will continue to be eroded by sub-inflation rises on budget day. If I was a betting man, I’d say it’d be prudent to plan for my retirement equivalent (in 15-20 years time) to range from 14k down towards 13k by the time I croak 20-something years later, if I’m lucky to live that long.
 
conor_mc said:
Any party that tried to remove the contributory pension that I’ve contributed to all of my working life wouldn’t see a vote from the next 28 generations of my family, I’d make sure of it!!
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Two parties, namely Fine Gael and Labour have previously removed contributions from voters pension funds.

These voters would appear to be still voting for these parties.

These voters appear to be happy to have had their pensions raided.

None of these voters asked for a refund of their 2 Billion euro, despite the fact that these two parties were tripping over themselves trying to decide what to spend the Apple Billions on.
 
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S class said:
Two parties, namely Fine Gael and Labour have previously removed contributions from voters pension funds.

These voters would appear to be still voting for these parties.

These voters appear to be happy to have had their pensions raided.

None of these voters asked for a refund of their 2 Billion euro, despite the fact that these two parties were tripping over themselves trying to decide what to spend the Apple Billions on.
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Oh I don’t disagree that they’ll get away with dilution of some description but outright removal, as the person quoted in the article suggested, would be even more emotive than water charges imo.
 
ClubMan said:
They came back to me and asked for more information. I provided them with whatever I had and then heard nothing. So I pinged them again and now they tell me that my case is waiting on somebody to be assigned to it... :(
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Quick update... Got a call from Buncrana this morning and the very helpful guy explained that my missing 26 contributions had mistakenly been entered with the wrong PPSN back in the day and he was able to correct this so that I now have my full 52 contributions for 2000/2001. I haven't checked in myWelfare yet but he said that they should be there now. And he also said that my > €5K PRSA drawdown in September 2024 which only gave me a month or two of class S contributions via payroll will eventually be automatically reconciled and updated to 52 contributions for the year by April/May this year. :)

Edit: I have since checked my contribution statement on myWelfare and the erstwhile missing contributions are now present and correct.
 
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