John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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1294. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if her attention has been drawn to her Department's policy and practice of not displaying homemakers credits on a person's social insurance record but only taking them into account when a person's pension application is submitted and calculated; her views on whether it is preferable to display the homemaker's credits on the contribution statement as they accrue, ensuring better clarity and transparency for persons; if the practice will be changed; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36522/18]

Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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The Homemaker scheme was introduced to make it easier for those who provide full-time care for children or for an incapacitated person to qualify for a higher rate of payment under the State Pension (Contributory), as calculated under the current Yearly Average system. The scheme came into effect on 6 April 1994 and applies to both men and women.

The homemakers scheme allows up to a maximum of 20 homemaking years to be disregarded for State Pension (Contributory) purposes. The homemakers scheme does not issue social insurance credits for the duration of this period, rather it disregards the years when calculating entitlement to the contributory state pension using the Yearly Average Calculation. A small number of credits are awarded at the start of the year the period began, and at the end of the year it was completed. This disregard and those credits are only awarded for the purpose of a State pension (contributory) claim. They may not be used to qualify for any other payment which a person might apply for when of working age.

In May my Department launched a public consultation on the introduction of a Total Contributions Approach to calculating the contributory state pension. Although we are now deliberating on the submissions to the consultation, a move towards introducing homemakers credits to replace the "disregard" is likely (as signposted in the National Pensions Framework).

How these credits will be communicated to those who have earned them is just one of many technical and logistical issues that will be addressed before we seek to finalise a proposal. My ambition, however, is that the more simplified nature of the Total Contributions Approach will allow us make more useful information available to future pensioners, than is possible under the current system.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.