John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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274. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if the case of a person (details supplied) will be examined; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [52578/22]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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A review of the customer concerned case has been completed and they do not qualify for BP65 based on their current record & the legislation governing the award of Benefit Payment for Over 65s (BP65).

In order to qualify:

The person concerned must have 104 overall cons – which they have.

They must also have 39 paid or credited cons in the GCY (currently 2020) – and again they satisfy this condition as they signed for Jobseeker's Credits in 2018 and have a continuous claim.

In order to qualify the person concerned must also have 13 paid contributions either in the GCY or in any one of the following four years – the current year 2022, last year 2021 or the 2 years prior to the GCY (2018 / 2019). The person concerned does not satisfy this condition as their last paid contributions are in 2017.

As BP65 claims are made under JB & JBSE legislation, in order to qualify all applicants must satisfy the above contribution criteria. My Department also reviewed this case see if they would have had an entitlement to extended JB when they turned 65 but their contributions had exhausted in March 2018.

This case went to appeal, and the Appeals Officer confirmed that they had not established an entitlement to BP65 under the governing legislation and the appeal did not succeed.

The person's last paid contributions were in 2017 and, as such, they fall outside the terms of the scheme.