Should my mother qualify for non contributory pension

R

remey

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My mother, 74 worked in the private sector until she married in her 20s. My father is a retired Garda and gets the civil service pension.
They don't have any additional assets, shares etc. My Dad has €19,000 left of his gratuity which is managed very carefully but only reducing. Dad takes home 1500 per month in his pension. Already deducted is the medical aid health insurance and a budget payment to the credit union which covers utilities. They both qualify for the medical card but Mam has been told that she does not qualify for the non contributory pension. Does this sound right? She has asked around before, citizens advice etc but is getting different answers. She queried it with revenue, a tax consultant said she should qualify but revenue said no.
Are we missing something? Is there any other avenue I can go on her behalf? Her sisters who seem to be wealthier than her get it and her friends who are in similar situations also get it so if she doesn't qualify and I can explain the full logic it will help put it to bed. Thanks
 
"My Dad has €19,000 left of his gratuity which is managed very careful"


What does that mean?

Did you mother get her PRSI contribution statement from Sligo, if she has ten years contributions she may be eligible for some portion of the contributary state pension
 
Saavy99 said:
My Dad has €19,000 left of his gratuity which is managed very carefully"
Click to expand...
I quoted it in case it might be relevant to the figures from a means testing point of view.

I will check re Sligo - thanks for that.
 
Did your mother apply for the non-contributory pension from the Department of Social Protection? If she did and was refused, the refusal letter should outline exactly why. If she didn't, then she should apply now.

Revenue have no role in state pensions.
 
The non-con SP is means-tested against the husband's Garda pension income, and maybe against financial assets.
 
Another point:

the net pension seems low, at 18k pa net?

If he had full service as a Garda, and qualifies for a full Garda pension, I'm guessing the gross pension would be higher?

No tax to pay, I'm guessing, as there's no other income?

So a pension of 18k gross seeems low?
 
The Garda pension sounds very low. Most would retire on at around €70k and receive a 50% pension after full service of 30 years. This would result in a pension of above €1500 a month generally.

Did he have less than full service? In this case he may have some of his own PRSI record that could qualify him for a contributory pension.

Edit: I see @Protocol has said much the same thing above.
 
the 1500 is net of :

Already deducted is the medical aid health insurance and a budget payment to the credit union which covers utilities.

guess it depends on how high those amounts are
 
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