Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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1199. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if credits are automatically awarded in cases in which a person received the pandemic unemployment payment as with other social welfare payments as in the case of a person (details supplied). [20656/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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In order to establish a person’s entitlement to the State Pension (Contributory), a completed pension application form must be lodged with the Department and the social insurance record of the person concerned examined by a deciding officer.

According to the records of my Department, the person concerned has not, to date, lodged a pension application form with the Department and will reach pension age on 29 June 2021. I have arranged for a copy of the person’s social insurance contribution record to issue to her together with an application form for the State Pension (Contributory).

Following the enactment of the Social Welfare (Covid-19) (Amendment) Act 2020, social welfare legislation provides for the attribution of social insurance contributions, for a prescribed period, to insured persons who were beneficiaries of certain Covid-19 income support payments. These payments include the pandemic unemployment payment.

This provision will ensure that persons entitled to and in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment will have social insurance contributions attributed to them at the same value as they were paying while employed immediately before going on the payment.

The measure means that people who lost their jobs arising from the Covid-19 pandemic will not be disadvantaged in accessing social insurance benefits in the future.

I trust that this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.