Transferring UK National Insurance credits

Hi all
Missus is having a bit of a problem.
She moved her from UK at the beginning of 2012, signed on for Jobseekers Allowance (pittance, but mostly for the credits) but got a full-time job quick enough in April 2012. Unfortunately in June this year the company went into liquidation and is no more.

I was under the impression that she would be entitled to Jobseekers Benefit once her UK credits were transferred over. According to Welfare, this is not the case: her Irish credits (am guessing around 65-70) plus UK credits (ten years working full-time continuously) apparently don't equal 104 credits. This is just based on a phone call last Thursday - nothing in writing as yet.

I can find nothing on welfare.ie or citizens info that suggests UK credits hold some sort of lesser value when transferred. Indeed the prevailing wisdom around the internet was that once you'd paid one credit here, you could transfer your UK bits and be good to go for for JB. Also, EU directives suggest that equal standing should be given to credits transferred from EU.

Anyone any thoughts or explanations? I'm taken aback by the response to be honest, which was kinda confirmed by Citizens Info on Friday.

Furthermore, she has actually never received anything in writing from Welfare subsequent to any of her visits. She had originally asked if she needed to sign on for credits, but was told only once a year. At a recent visit to check up on her UK credits, she was asked why she didn't sign on on xx Sept. Her response being she was never told to. I think it was just left then upon waiting for the UK credits, but was subsequently raised again by Welfare during last Thusday's phone call.

*phew* Thanks for listening

Possible explanations for the refusal of Jobseeker's Benefit:
- Has her UK record been transferred in full? Getting information on national insurance contributions from the UK can be very slow.
- She may not have enough contributions in the relevant tax year (2011), even though her total record has more than 104.

The qualifying rules for Jobseeker's Benefit are:

- at least 104 contributions paid since starting work
and
- at least 39 contributions, of which 13 must be paid in the relevant tax year (currently 2011).

EU insurance contributions are counted exactly the same as Irish PRSI - week for week.

Thanks Gipimann, for saving my sanity for starters!
She was full-time for the full year with a big company so i'm hoping there's no issues there. The thing that worried me was this idea that credits were counted as less. Have requested her full National Insurance record from UK anyway.

So one would need to have 1 years Irish credits then to qualify. So that rumour of needing just 1 credit is just that, a rumour.

You will have a job decoding what you get from the UK. They don't state in any clear format what was paid when.

The "1 credit" isn't a rumour, Steve - in order to be able to count EU contributions, there must be at least one paid PRSI contribution made here in Ireland (i.e. at least one week's work). Once that's satisfied, then it's down to counting the contributions to see if there are enough to qualify.

Here's the information from the SW page on Jobseeker's Benefit:

Contributions you have paid in other member states of the EU/EEA will be added to your Irish contributions. If you are applying for Jobseeker's Benefit and need the contributions paid in another EU/EEA country to help you qualify, then your last contribution must have been in Ireland.

http://www.welfare.ie/en/Pages/Jobseeker's-Benefit.aspx

I suspect that her full UK record may not have been made available to the Irish SW office, so it appears to them that she doesn't qualify.

Yeah decoding the UK bits seems to be the issue alright.

My point about the 1 credit rumour was that if they only count the relevant tax year (ie 2011) for the UK, plus the 1 credit from Ireland, then that's only 53 credits, ie not enough to claim JB. Tho i feel like i'm picking that up wrong, as it's states above only 13 need to be in relevant tax year.

But it looks like the rules are on her side, we just need to get the UK bits in order. Will wait for the written decision, see what comes back from UK, then appeal from there. Cheers again

You may be mixing up the 2 qualifying rules.

To qualify for Jobseeker's Benefit you must have

- a total of 104 paid contributions since starting work (all years)
and
- 39 contributions, of which 13 must be paid, in the relevant tax year (which is 2 years before the current year).

EU contributions can only be counted towards these rules if the last contribution was made in Ireland - it must be a paid contribution not a credit (in other words, there must have been at least one day/week's work when a PRSI contribution was made).

So your wife must have at least 104 contributions in total, the most recent of which must have been paid in Ireland, and 39 contributions for 2011, of which 13 must have been paid.

Thanks again Gipimann, that's what i was looking for clarity on.
Subject to UK credits being ok, it means she should be entitled to 9 months JB then. We're not married, so cohabiting means she's unlikely to get JA so i'm just planning ahead - since her lack of savings has meant i've covered her since June this year.