Vol. 495 No. 4
290 Mr. Aylward asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will revise the regulation within his Department on social insurance paid prior to 1953 in order that those contributions can be used in calculating the yearly average test required to qualify for pro-rata old age contributory pension; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20410/98]
To qualify for the old age (contributory) pension, a person must (i) have entered insurance at least ten years before pensioin age; (ii) have at least 156 contributions paid, and (iii) have a yearly average of at least 20 contributions (or 24 in the case of a Retirement Pension) registered since January 1953 (when the unified system of social insurance came into effect), or the time they started insurable employment, if later.
This yearly average condition has been further reduced to ten contributions for the new pro-rata old age (contributory) pension which came into effect from 21 November 1997.
Prior to 1953 three different types of contributions were payable — national health insurance, widow's and orphan's pension and unemployment insurance contributions. These gave specific entitlement only to the benefits of the schemes under which they were paid.
Contributions paid by insured persons prior to 1961 did not contain an element in respect of old age (contributory) pension which was introduced in 1961. However, social insurance paid before 1953 under the National Health Insurance Acts can be taken into account for old age (contributory) pension purposes in satisfying the first two conditions, set out in the first paragraph above, but cannot be used in calculating the yearly average.
The purpose of the qualifying conditions for the old age (contributory) pension is to link entitlement to a pension with a reasonable level of contributions to the social insurance fund during the course of a person's career.
I consider these qualifying conditions to be reasonable and I have no plans to amend these at this time.
