Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 7 Nov 2000

Vol. 525 No. 2

Written Answers. - Pension Provisions.

Nora Owen

Question:

748 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs if he will revise the payment of social welfare contributions to allow a person when they reach the age of 66 years to continue to pay contributions if they had not built up sufficient contributions to qualify them for a contributory old age pension in view of the fact that some people are working beyond the age of 66 years and would be quite happy to receive their pension later than the age of 66; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24665/00]

Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern):

In recent years more and more flexibility has been introduced into the qualifying conditions for the old age contributory pension scheme. Some of the more significant improvements in recent years include the introduction of pro-rata pensions for people with mixed insurance records, the reduction in the number of contributions required for the old age contributory pension to a yearly average of ten and the introduction of a special old age contributory pension for self-employed people in 1999.

More recently, this year's Social Welfare Act provided for further recognition of contributions paid prior to 1953 through the introduction of a new flat-rate, 50%, pension for people who had previously failed to qualify for an old age contributory pension due to the yearly average test or who qualified for a pension payment at a lower rate. This is in line with this Government's commitment to extend contributory pensions coverage to as many categories of people as possible.

These improvements have led to a significant increase in the number of people who can now qualify for a contributory pension. My Department is currently reviewing the qualifying conditions for old age contributory and retirement pensions. The report on the first phase of this review was published recently and proposed, amongst other things, that the average contribution test, on which entitlement is currently based, be replaced by a system based on the actual number of contributions paid-credited. The implementation of this system will be considered in the second phase of the review. Further improvements will be considered in a budgetary context in the light of this work.