State pension query

Hoping someone can she some light here. Person in question qualified for state pension in September 2016 but continued to work and is still working.

He contacted revenue in August 2017 when no correspondence or pension was paid to see what was happening and he was told that it was up to him to make contact and to set the wheels in motion.

This seems very unfair to me when revenue are very quick to contact you on other issues.

Now he is being told they will only backdate so far which means he has losing out on 5 months of pension payments which is a very significant amount or money.

We feel this is very unfair and I want to see if anyone on here could give some advice or more importantly advise on what he should do.

Thanks in advance!

The state pension is paid by the Department of Social Protection, not Revenue. You have to apply for it. The rules (which took 30 seconds to find online) are explicit about this: "You should apply 3 months before reaching pension age. If you do not claim within 6 months of becoming eligible, you could lose some payment."

dub_nerd thanks for your response.

Im afraid to some people at retirement age “online” isnt as easily understood or accessible as it is to you or I.

This is what’s happened so.

Is there any way around it do you think or can anything be done?

You could plead ignorance and try to reason with them (which it sounds like you've already done). There is also a Social Welfare appeals office, which you could try:

http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Social-Welfare-Appeals-Office_holder.aspx

They may not have any discretion in the case. But nothing to lose by trying. There's also the old tried and trusted Irish route ... contact your TD. But he/she will do nothing more than write to the Department and claim the credit if anything comes of it, so I wouldn't bother.

Thank you!

I am due to start the State pension next February. Last November without me contacting them I received a letter and application forms in the post from the Department of Social Protection.

Thanks isleofman this would seem like the most obvious approach. People should be contacted and helped along rather than what seems to be happening