UK and Irish state pension entitlemet confusion

[imogen]

Very grateful for any guidance anyone can give me. I am trying to help my husband figure out if he may be entitled to a state pension. He has reached 65, the pension age in the UK. He studied and worked in the UK, but often didn't have full contributions as he was a theatre lighting designer which was precarious employment. I've managed to figure out he has 23 full year contributions in the UK plus he could, as far as I can see, gain another 8 years by paying voluntary top-ups of about £5400.

In 1991, he moved to Ireland, and I think had either two or three years employed PAYE/PRSI contributions here. So I reckon he probably has 33 years contributions, plus he has paid self employed PRSI from 2010-2016 here as well, although he was caring for his parents in the UK for much of the past three years.

Having read the complex Citizens Advice pages, I'm really no wiser as to whether this is going to get him "over the line" for a non-contributory state pension because I don't understand the averages bit.

My question is not really the financial nitty-gritty, as in the end that will be decided by the powers that be. It's who should we go to and in what order, to figure out our best course of action? Citizens Advice? Social Welfare? UK DWP? At the moment I'm thinking we need help to figure out whether to pay for the 8 years voluntary top-ups (almost certainly yes) and how do we figure this out? After that's done, we need to complete, I think, the SPC form https://www.welfare.ie/en/pdf/spc1.pdf because he has reached 65 rather than the usual https://www.welfare.ie/en/pdf/eup65.pdf. This should then mean that Irish social welfare will contact UK social welfare and with luck the wheels will grind and he might get a pension next September when he reaches 66?

As I said, deeply grateful for any advice from people who understand these systems better than I do...

Imogen

 

[Conan]

I would start with your local Citizens Information office. Under the Irish system you can have your UK contribution years added to your Irish record in calculating your entitlement under the Irish system. That may give you an “average” figure which might entitle you to close to the max State Pension.

 

[Black Sheep]

As you are living in Ireland you should fill up the SPC form. This will as you say get the wheels in motion. It is unlikely that you would get a non contributory pension here as it appears you will be entitled to a UK contributory pension or part thereof plus a part Irish contributory pension.

If you are considering going to Citizens Information it would be advisable to obtain a copy of your contributions so that they can at least do a rough calculation.

I have always the UK DWP very helpful on the pros and cons of paying voluntary contributions with the figures worked.

 

[imogen]

Thank you both. I fell at the first fence above. I do find the terminology confusing. In the original message, I should have stated "contributory" pension (ie he paid into the system, just not all the time, and if we can prove he paid enough, it's a contributory pension he'll receive). The fallback if that fails would be the means-tested "non-contributory" payment but that's complicated too, as his father died this year and he inherited a property in the UK that he cannot sell because his mother is still alive though in full-time care which would affect his entitlement. So that house is actually costing him, not funding him, but would be accounted for in any means test, I suspect?

Also I agree UK DWP system seems very helpful. I was able to create a UK Gov UserID for my husband on the HMRC website, and then view his National Insurance contributions online, and I have sent an online enquiry on his behalf to them regarding the top-up option, but I'm starting now because I see stuff on UK forums indicating the response time from them is currently very slow due to their limited resources. About to try the same process with the MyGov ID account here to see if I can look at his Irish social insurance record...