Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 November 2004
337 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs the reason the pension of a person (details supplied) in County Mayo was reduced; and if he will provide the complete and detailed breakdown of the calculations in this case. [31096/04]
View answer338 Mr. Ring asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs if the pension application of a person (details supplied) in County Mayo has been approved; and if this person will qualify for either a contributory pension or a non-contributory pension. [31097/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 337 and 338 together.
A person age 66 years or over may qualify for an old age non-contributory pension if she or he satisfies a means test. When calculating the means, all income and savings are taken into account including British retirement pension income. In the case of a married couple, the individual means of the husband and wife are taken to be half their joint means.
The wife of the couple in question is currently getting an old age non-contributory pension at a reduced rate of €130.50 per week inclusive of a fuel allowance of €9.00. Her entitlement to this pension is based on her weekly means as derived from her British retirement pension in October 2001 of IR£30.46.
Her husband is currently getting a disability allowance of €109.80 per week. However, his payment will cease in January 2005 when he reaches age 66 as disability allowance is not payable beyond that age. For this reason, he recently applied for an old age non-contributory pension in his own right. This necessitated a review of the couple's financial circumstances by a social welfare inspector. Following this review, a deciding officer assessed each of the couple with weekly means of €78.79 deriving from their two British retirement pensions. On this basis, they are both entitled to an old age non-contributory pension of €81.50 per week. Full details of how the means of the couple were calculated were posted to the Deputy.
I understand that the Deputy also wishes to know if the husband in question would qualify for an old age contributory pension. One of the qualifying conditions for receipt of this pension is that the claimant must have a minimum of 260 full rate insurance contributions paid. An examination of his social insurance contribution record indicates that he does not satisfy this condition. For this reason, he would not qualify for this pension.
