Spouses who operate in a commercial partnership may be brought into the social insurance system, subject to meeting some of the general criteria outlined as follows:
There is a written partnership agreement
Each partner writes cheques on the business accounts in their own right
There is a joint business account
It is apparent to those doing business with the partnership that a partnership exists
Business accounts and activities are in joint names of the partners
Each partner makes a significant contribution to the running of the business
The business is owned jointly by the partnership
The profits and losses of the partnership are shared by each partner
The business stationery reflects the existence of a partnership.
Applications received in Scope Section are forwarded to Social Welfare Inspectors who interview the parties concerned and report back to Scope Section. A Deciding Officer subsequently issues a formal decision on whether a partnership exists or not. To date, of 579 applications finalised, 508 cases have been approved.
When approved, both spouses may incur a liability to pay self-employed PRSI contributions and must discharge their liability before the contributions can be awarded. The person(s) concerned can then apply for pension or benefit in the normal way. Widows and widowers can qualify for one of a number of different schemes depending on their particular circumstances.
The widow(er)'s contributory pension is available to those who satisfy the necessary PRSI contribution conditions, either on their own record or that of the deceased spouse and, therefore, there are no disqualifications from entitlement to pension where relevant PRSI contribution conditions are satisfied.
In relation to the widow's contributory pension, the pension is automatically awarded, provided all other qualifying conditions are satisfied, where the late spouse was in receipt of either a state pension (transition or contributory) which included an increase for a dependent spouse (or would have but for the fact that the spouse was in receipt of state pension non-contributory, blind pension or carer's allowance).
While there are no plans to further ease the qualifying conditions at present, any further reforms to the state pension (contributory) will be addressed in the forthcoming national pensions framework.
To qualify for a state pension (contributory), a number of minimum qualifying conditions must be met. A person must have at least 260 paid social insurance contributions, a yearly average of at least 10 contributions paid or credited since entry into social insurance, and must have entered social insurance at least 10 years before state pension age. In addition, self employed contributors must have a minimum of one year's paid self employed contributions before reaching age 66 and have all self-employed liability, payable by them paid. From 6 April 2012, a minimum of 520 paid contributions will be required.
These conditions have been designed to ensure that those qualifying for payment have an adequate and sustained history of contributions to the social insurance fund over their working lives. The requirements for minimum pensions have been eased over the years and a number of special pensions were introduced.