Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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690. To ask the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection the rationale for applying different rules as regards contributory pension credit eligibility for family carers who have provided unpaid care for fewer than twenty years, compared with other persons who access State payments, such as jobseekers or long-term carers. [44976/24]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The State Pension (Contributory) is funded from the Social Insurance Fund through the contributions paid by workers. The rate of payment reflects the number of social insurance contributions paid over a working life. Eligibility for the State Pension (Contributory) (SPC) is based on a number of criteria:

• Being aged 66 or over.
• Having entered the Social Insurance system 10 years before you intend to drawdown your SPC.
• Having a minimum of 520 paid social insurance contributions (i.e., 10 years' reckonable PRSI contributions).

• PRSI credits such as jobseekers (up to a maximum of 10 years' credits).
• Homemaking Disregards and HomeCaring Periods to recognise caring periods of up to 20 years outside of paid employment in the calculation of a payment rate.

As the Deputy is aware, some long-term carers of incapacitated dependents faced barriers in accessing the State Pension (Contributory). They may, for example, have difficulty establishing the minimum number of 520 paid contributions. To alleviate these barriers I was pleased to introduce long-term carers contributions (LTCCs) from January 2024. LTCCs differ from PRSI credits or Homecaring periods in the manner in which they are applied.

Since January 2024, LTCCs can be awarded to a person who has cared for an incapacitated person for a period of 20 years (1040 weeks) or more and these contributions can be used towards the calculation of their State Pension (Contributory) entitlement. This is done by attributing the equivalent of a paid contribution to long-term carers of incapacitated dependents to cover gaps in their contribution record. These long-term carers contributions will be treated the same as paid contributions for State Pension (Contributory) entitlement only and can, where there are gaps in paid contributions, be used to satisfy the minimum 520 qualifying contributions condition.

I trust this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.