What countries can we claim state pension from? (British/Irish/French)

Probably like quite a few people, my husband and I have spent time living and working elsewhere in Europe. Before moving to France we both worked full time in UK. We spent 2 years living in France (where my husband worked & I claimed child benefit for 2/3 children), and then 9 years living in Ireland (3 of which my husband continued to be employed as a French employee in Ireland the remaining 6 years he worked as an Irish employee.) I drew child benefit for the years we lived there. Lovely place to live!! We returned to UK in the late 1990's and I returned to fulltime work. My question is do either or both of us have an entitlement to a portion of French and\or Irish pension? I have no idea where we stand. We will both be very dependant on state benefit and are both 56 years of age just now. Our retirement age here in the UK will be 65 for both of us. We can't be the first people with these issues!! Some help\advice would be very much appreciated.

I am in a similar situation and, yes, in theory you can claim a state pension from all of those states where you paid social security contributions towards a pension.

The general theory behind the calculation is that your entitlements are based on your contributions - usually based the number of periods that you have contributed., depending on the system used in each country.

In the EU, each of the states should take into account the total period worked within the EU when calculating your entitlement and then the pay prorata to the period spent contribution in that state. Eg if you worked for 30 years in total and spent 2 years in France, 10 years in ireland and 18 years in the UK then you would be entitled to 2/30ths of the French pension plus 10/30th othe Irish plus 12/30ths of the UK. Some of the states may have minimum requirements for contributions and you may not qualify on this count.

But, as you can imagine, trying to claim all of these entitlements will be a bureaucratic nightmare as you will need to claim in 3 countries in this example supplying documentary proof of your contributions (eg payslips, year end tax forms) and complying with the different systems in each country - apart from any language problems.


However, you are entitled to these payments under EU law and each state has a section of their Social Welfare/Pensions responsable for helping you - but be prepared for a long hard haul.

First thing to do, is to contact the Social Welfare/pension office in each country providing details of your social security number and periods of employment - the sooner you start the better.

Countries covered by EU regulations

Social security provisions have existed in EU law for more than 30 years. They are contained in Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 and 987/2009.
The EU/EEA countries covered by these Regulations are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Poland, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom (including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man - see 'bilateral social security agreements' below).

I found this website helpful http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/resourcecentre/disclaimer.asp

What countries can we claim state pension from? (British/Irish/French) - jpd reply

Thanks jpd,
I'm going to try and track this down next week. We do keep all our pay slips/tax return forms etc. so we do have paperwork. I am not sure where I stand as I was not actually working in France and Ireland but was rearing children. Claiming family allowance covers me for a claim for full state pension here. I think if each of us could claim some pension from Ireland\France it may be financially better to do that. That's if Ireland hasn't gone completely bankrupt before I reach retirement age!!!
Thank you - I will post what the outcome of my enquiries are.