Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

356. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the status of the appeal by a person (details supplied). [34269/21]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The person concerned has given notice of Appeal regarding disallowance of Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds. The Appeal is pending, awaiting an outcome.

The Benefit Payment for 65 Year Olds, provided under the Jobseekers Benefit scheme, has been introduced in line with the Programme for Government commitment, to address the position of people who are required to or choose to retire at age 65 before the pension age of 66.

This new benefit payment is designed to bridge the gap for people who retire from employment or self-employment at 65 until they qualify for the State Pension at age 66. Recipients of the payment are not required to sign on, engage in activation measures or be available for and genuinely seeking work which is normally the case for recipients of a Jobseeker’s payment.

To be eligible for the payment a person must satisfy the qualifying conditions of the scheme including the PRSI social insurance contribution requirement.

A person must have paid 104 PRSI insurable employment contributions at class A, H or P or paid 156 class S contributions if they are self-employed. The second contribution condition requires that a person must also have 39 reckonable contributions paid or credited in the Governing Contribution Year (GCY). The GCY for 2021 is 2019. At least 13 of these contributions must be paid. Where a person does not have 13 paid contributions in the GCY they can be from 2 years before the GCY, the last complete tax year or the current tax year. Alternatively, a person could qualify if they have at least 26 reckonable contributions paid in both the GCY and the year immediately preceding the GCY.

In accordance to the records of the Department the last paid PRSI contribution for the person concerned was in 2015.