PRSI Contributions whilst in College

J

JohnMM

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I have not seen any detail on this in any other thread:

Can anyone confirm if you get automatic PRSI credits (for the purposes of Pensions) for time spent in full time education (University or other forms of higher education)?

My PRSI contribution statement seems to be missing some of these and I was wondering if they should be automatically applied?
 
No, you only automatically get PRSI credits when you are in employment, either PAYE employment, or self employed.(and contributing PRSI)

You also receive automatic PRSI credits if you receive certain state benefits, like unemployment benefit/allowance, Illness benefit and others.

Fulltime Students, who are not working, are not entitled to receive any PRSI credits, many students work partime and receive PRSI credits.
 

Does this not have a big impact on students when they need to hit average PRSI credits for the pension. I worked part time during college. Every summer week and then maybe a few more months part time hours.

It also didn’t help that I had to leave Ireland for a few years due to recession.

From a prsi after college. From an average point of view I’d have been better off not working during college. Not something I could afford.
 

That's an issue that the switch from the YAM to the TCA will address.
 
My situation is very similar, part time working in college is now impacting pension rights and the new system will not kick in to help in time, unfortunately. I would have more benefits if I had not paid PRSI at the time!
 
JohnMM said:
part time working in college is now impacting pension rights and the new system will not kick in to help in time
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What year do you turn 66 and how many PRSI contributions have you to date?
 
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But the new system is already here (according to Citizens Information for anyone retiring after September 2012)! They will look at average and also TCA and give the best rate.
 
What about if you worked then went to university as a mature student , in that case should you get prsi contributions credited for those years, in my case it was late 90s?
 
joe sod said:
What about if you worked then went to university as a mature student , in that case should you get prsi contributions credited for those years, in my case it was late 90s?
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I suggest begin by getting a Contributions Statement and then you see what contributions that you have - and then see if anything that is wrong and try to get it corrected. I have recently started this process. my issue is that I worked part-time to fund college and then worked outside the country foe a decade. The part time job "started the clock" on my PRSI contributions - but the years in college and out of the country kill my calculations (because the denominator is increased by not the numerator, in old fashioned terms) and despite paying into the system for nearly 30 years (by the time that I will retire) I am not entitled to a full contributory pension. Had I stayed at home and drawn the dole for these years I would get a full pension. I assume Joe you are treated in a similar way.
 
JohnMM said:
I have 1200 to the end of 2023 and have another 4 years to retirement at the end of 2027.
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Okay you have 1200 and if you get another 204, you'll have 1,404 out of a possible 2,080, which gives you 67.5% of a full pension under the Total Contributions Approach. Looks like you've worked for 23 years here and have another 4 years so 27 years out of 40.

What country were you in for the years you were abroad? You might have an entitlement to a pension from that country or an ability to have those years included in the calculation of your Irish pension.
 
joe sod said:
What about if you worked then went to university as a mature student , in that case should you get prsi contributions credited for those years, in my case it was late 90s?
Click to expand...
Only if you had a full two years of PRSI paid before going back to college. My problem is that I signed on for the first time in 1993 and went back to college on the long term unemployed in 1995. Despite signing on in 1993 I had not had two full years of PRSI paid at that time but I had worked part time a few times before emigrating in 1986. So I got mothing despite being in the system for 6 years prior to starting work after college. So my clock started in 1983 but I get very little before 1999.
 
Despite the explanations online the system is hard to follow. Are there some examples? Particularly TCA v Average and the relevance of the starting date and the clock "ticking" I may have earlier UK contributions but before my clock started "ticking" but they will be less than 48 so will bring down my average?
 

Make an appointment with your local Citizens Information office and let them go through your own details with you.

Be sure to bring your PRSI record and the details of any overseas contributions with you. The better the information, the less the guesswork.
 
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