Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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830. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection if a self-employed person who pays S contributions and was in receipt of the pandemic unemployment payment during 2020 and 2021 will have a S contribution recognised on their record for those years, retaining their full entitlement to apply for invalidity pension; the steps that self-employed persons need to undertake to retain their social welfare entitlements; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13269/23]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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Invalidity Pension (IP) is payable to a person who satisfies certain Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) contribution conditions and who is permanently incapable of work due to an illness or incapacity and for no other reason.

A person is regarded as being permanently incapable of work if:

- for the period of one year immediately before the date of application the person had been continuously incapable of work and a Deciding Officer is satisfied that the person is likely to continue to be incapable of work for at least another year; or

- a Deciding Officer is satisfied that the likelihood is that the person will be incapable of work for life.

Eligibility for IP can only be established on receipt of a completed application form. It is at this stage that the PRSI record for the applicant will be examined to establish if the contribution conditions are satisfied. If it is found that contributions in respect of Social Welfare payments such as the Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) have not been updated on his or her insurance record, this will be rectified by my Department before a decision is made on the IP claim.

A self-employed person, as with all recipients of IP, must have ceased their employment before applying for IP and must not be engaged in any form of employment while in receipt of this payment.

If the Deputy is aware of a specific case, he could provide the details to my Department for review.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.