UK State Pension Maxed Out - Can I Use Excess UK Years for Irish State Pension

S

SeanStreet

New Member
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Hi All

I have a question about using excess UK national insurance contributions to add to my Irish State pension.

I am resident in Ireland, having previously lived and worked in UK for 15 years.

I have paid additional voluntary UK National Insurance contributions and am now at approx 34 years entitlement (35 years required) for the UK state pension. I am in process of paying final year and then will be entitled to full UK state pension.

I could (I believe) continue to pay the voluntary national insurance contributions for approx 10 years. I would then have 10 extra years.

I will not reach the full 40 years PRSI payments for a full Irish state pension as I was outside Ireland for a long period and also in education etc.

If I was to continue paying voluntary additional National Insurance payments, could I add these 10 extra years of UK National Insurance contributions to my Irish PRSI contributions? To increase my entitlement to an Irish State pension.

I am aware that you can use UK National Insurance payments to contribute pro rata to an Irish state pension ( but they may not be worth much for the Irish pension). But I don't know if you can use excess National Insurance years against Irish state pension contributions while simultaneously claiming the full UK state pension.

Could I use some of my National Insurance contributions (either the ones I paid while working in UK or the ones paid voluntarily after I left ) to supplement my Irish state pension?

(I did ask Irish Pensions/Dept of Social Protection but they couldn't answer)

Thanks for any help or advice.
 
DannyBoyD said:
It sounds unlikely to me; put the question in writing and see what you get back.
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Thanks for the feedback. I'll contact again.

I did ask twice already.

Once via email - I got an evasive cut and paste answer, they answered a different question.

Once on the phone. The guy couldn't answer the question.
 
There are two types of NI/PRSI contributions: compulsory and voluntary.

AFAIK only compulsory contributions in one jurisdiction can be used for aggregation in the other.
 
Dr Strangelove said:
There are two types of NI/PRSI contributions: compulsory and voluntary.

AFAIK only compulsory contributions in one jurisdiction can be used for aggregation in the other.
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The OP’s question is one I’ve asked of several sources and got nowhere.

To address Dr’s point perhaps one could ask for some of the compulsory contributions paid during the 15 years living and working in the UK to be used for the Irish pension and this gap being made up by future contributions over the next 10 years.

Having said that ….there is a formula on the department’s website that shows the formula for taking into account foreign social welfare contributions and any time I’ve used it in my case (14 years of compulsory UK contributions) it’s not been favourable.
 
Dr Strangelove said:
There are two types of NI/PRSI contributions: compulsory and voluntary.

AFAIK only compulsory contributions in one jurisdiction can be used for aggregation in the other.
Click to expand...
I try to get an answer to this question for some years now. I keep getting very conflicting answers from both the Pension Office in Sligo and Citizen Information. Both told me on various occasions that you can use foreign voluntary contributions and both have told me on various occasions that you cannot use them for aggregation. So far I got nowhere with my investigation.

Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 is one of the treaties regulating the aggregation of contributions from different EU countries for the purpose of pro rata pensions.

Here is the relevant paragraph:

Article 6
Aggregation of periods

Unless otherwise provided for by this Regulation, the competent institution of a Member State whose legislation makes:
– the acquisition, retention, duration or recovery of the right to benefits,
– the coverage by legislation, or
– the access to or the exemption from compulsory, optional continued or voluntary insurance,
conditional upon the completion of periods of insurance, employment, self-employment or residence shall, to the extent necessary, take into account periods of insurance, employment, self-employment or residence completed under the legislation of any other Member State as though they were periods completed under the legislation which it applies.

Judging by this, countries have to accept each others records. If one country allows voluntary contributions and accepts them as fully reckonable contributions for pension purposes, the other country involved cannot refuse those contributions for aggregation. It would mean a violation of the above treaty.

I am still looking for written regulations in regard to the use of foreign voluntary contributions in a pro rata pension. So far I found nothing.
 
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There may might be a problem coming up it you try this approach- overlapping. This would make it impossible to use UK voluntary contributions if you already have Irish contributions or credits in the same time window.
 
Thanks guys.

I will try again, in writing, and reference the compulsory contributions.

I will update here if I get anything other than confusion and evasiveness.
 
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