Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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490. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the reason a person (details supplied) who is at retirement age and has made 520 + 23 social service contributions over a lifetime is only in receipt of €119.00 per week; the further reason persons who make no contributions are in receipt of a full pension. [48135/17]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Entitlement to state pension (contributory) is assessed on the basis of an applicant’s full social insurance record and the eligibility conditions applicable on the date they reach pension age.

According to the records of my Department, the person concerned has a social insurance record of 653 reckonable contributions and credits. They are in receipt of a reduced state pension (contributory) based on an assessed yearly average of 14 contributions, covering the period from March 1964 to December 2010. The person concerned is in receipt of the correct rate of contributory pension based on this record. Any gaps in the person’s insurance record will impact on the person’s overall yearly average and, consequently, on their rate of weekly pension entitlement.

As part of the pension eligibility assessment of the person concerned, a disregard of one year and award of 40 additional credits in the person’s yearly average calculation resulted from homemaking periods from 6 April 1994 to 12 January 1996. The person’s social insurance record was also updated to include class J contributions, Class J, for relevant periods during 2007-2008 and 2011-2012. Class J contributions are not reckonable for state pension (contributory) eligibility purposes.

It is not possible to qualify for state pension (contributory) without making social insurance contributions. A social insurance contribution record is not required for qualification for state pension (non-contributory), also payable from age 66. For this pension, eligibility is based on satisfaction of a means test. It is open to the person concerned to make an application for state pension (non-contributory) and have their entitlement assessed. The pension providing the higher rate of weekly payment will be paid to the person concerned.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.